Cleanliness Assessment of Food Utensils from Carte Restaurants in Khlong Toey Market, Bangkok

Abstract

Aims of this survey research article were collected and analyzed the data from 50 restaurants owners by interviews about the problems and obstacles to improve the food sanitation management and cleanliness assessment of food utensils; plates, spoons and water glasses with 50 samples of each type, a total of 150 samples selected from 50 carte restaurants and street stalls in Khlong Toey fresh market, Bangkok. The samples were assessed a Total Bacteria Count (TBC). Also, development and validation of a fluorescence method used to detect contamination of food utensil from a UV flashlight lamp with a 395 nanometers wavelength.

Results : From the interviews, the most important problems and obstacles to improve the food sanitation management caused by inappropriate restaurant environment such as a lot of dust and pest infestation (90.0%). The cleanliness assessment of food utensils showed the most food utensil samples (64%) were TBC contamination with an unacceptable level of food hygiene standard (>1.0 x 103 CFU/piece). Alternatively, cleanliness assessment of samples by the fluorescent method were detected a highest level contamination (+4) with 82%. The spoon samples showed the unacceptable level of TBC contamination and fluorescence in +4 levels more than other samples. The data showed a difference between TBC contamination and fluorescence method, with statistically significant (p-value < 0.001). However, the fluorescence method able to development for screening the bacterial contamination with the value of sensitivity, specificity, predictive value of positive and negative and efficiency test as 78.0, 100, 100, 18.0, and 82.0, respectively. This research is useful to guide the development of methods for cleanliness assessment of food utensils which affect the health and safety of the consumer following.