Evaluation of Occupational Health and Safety Risks on Institutional Food Services Staff

Abstract

Aim: Kitchen and food services areas involve many hazards and risks. Recent studies focused on occupational health and safety in institutional food services. This study was carried out to determine the exposure of institutional food services staff to work accidents and occupational diseases and the relation between nutritional status and job stress. Subjects and Methods: The study was conducted on 158 individuals working in the same kitchen and related service areas of a state university in Ankara, in the previous year. Data about participants’ work accident status, symptoms of current occupational diseases, job stress and daily food consumption with 24 hour recall were collected via a questionnaire by face to face interview. Also body weight and height measurements were done by the researchers and body mass index was calculated. Results: It was found that 29.1% of participants have respiratory and allergic symptoms; 39.2% of participants have eczema symptoms on their hands. The 78.4% of participants stated that they musculoskeletal aches. A significant negative correlation was found between individual workload and intakes of daily energy (kcal) (r=-0.169, p=0.034), protein (g) (r=-0.223, p=0.005) and fat (g) (r=-0.170, p=0.033). Conclusion: As a conclusion, it is important to raise awareness of the importance of occupational health and safety practices among the institutional food services staff and carry out the necessary preventive actions according to risk assessments.