ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
missing food safety training ( n = 204), and mobile food unit and truck vendors ranked second in poor personal hygiene ( n = 13). Of 124 facilities surveyed, 101 facilities (81%) had at least 1 employee and/or a PIC who were missing the mandated food safety training, and only 23 facilities (19%) were not missing food safety training. There was a significant di erence ( t = 4.184, p < .001) between the mean number of deficiencies in the missing food safety training group ( M ± SD : 20.75 ± 17.49) and the group that had the required food safety training ( M ± SD : 5.17 ± 7.04). These results show there was a higher mean number of deficiencies in facilities that were missing food safety training compared with facilities that were not missing food safety training.
FIGURE 2
Differences in Mean Numbers of Deficiencies Between Facility Types at Fort Liberty, 2021
Elementary and Middle Schools (8) Mobile Food Unit and Truck Vendors (21)
Childcare Facilities (17) Military Cafeterias (14)
Fast Food and Retail Establishments (64)
20
15
10
5
0
Improper Holding Temperatures **
Contaminated Equipment **
Inadequate Cooking**
Missing Training **
Poor Personal Hygiene
Food From Unsafe Sources**
Discussion
Deficiencies
Food Safety Training and Risk Factors As expected, facilities with employees who were missing the required food safety train- ing showed significant correlations with all five CDC foodborne illness risk factors iden- tified on inspection reports. Our study results show that food safety training might help reduce foodborne illness risk factor deficien- cies in military installation food establish- ments. Although the TSFC requires the FSM/ PIC to be a certified food protection manager and that all FSEs have food safety training, it has been documented that this training is not necessarily obtained, and refresher food safety training is not consistently being conducted or maintained by the FSM/PIC (HQDA, 2019a). Unmet food safety training requirements could be due to a lack of and/or low reten- tion of personnel, lack of food safety train- ing opportunities, or the failure of the PIC to establish or maintain an internal continu- ous food safety training program. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (2024) within USDA determined that FSEs trained in proper food safety sanitation techniques can lead to a 60% reduction in foodborne illness out- breaks. Continuous food safety training is crucial to maintaining knowledge and proce- dures in food service sanitation (McFarland et al., 2019). Of the 124 facilities we surveyed, 101 were missing food safety training for at least 1 or more employees and were found to have an
**Correlation significant at p < .001 between food safety training and risk factors identified via inspections. Note. Further explanation of the deficiencies: missing training (e.g., did not meet the training requirement); poor personal hygiene (e.g., bare-hand or arm contact with food, unkept hair); food from unsafe sources (e.g., suppliers with insufficient certificate of analysis); inadequate cooking (e.g., cooking and reheating time insufficient); improper holding temperatures (e.g., cold or hot holding temperatures insufficient); and contaminated equipment (e.g., drying, storage, and handling of utensils and equipment insufficient).
average of 344 deficiencies in CDC food- borne illness risk factor categories during the period of study. In comparison, 23 facilities had the required food safety training and were found to have an average of 37 deficiencies in CDC foodborne illness risk factor categories. Although these data do not definitively show that having the required food safety training eliminates identified deficiencies, they do indicate reduced deficiencies related to food safety training—which shows that having food safety training could reduce the poten- tial for foodborne illness outbreaks. Another study surveyed more than 900 Florida restaurants to examine the relation- ship between inspection results of chain and independent restaurants and mandatory food safety certification and safety train- ing via the restaurants’ documented food service sanitation and safety inspection results (Murphy et al., 2011). The findings of the same study indicated that nearly 400 chain restaurants showed significantly lower mean critical deficiency violations compared with the other more than 500 indepen- dent restaurants. Hence, chain restaurants
emphasize food safety training to reduce identified deficiencies, possibly due to cor- porate liability associated with foodborne illness outbreaks (Murphy et al., 2011). The requirement of and adherence to food safety training has been shown to reduce deficien- cies and/or violations found among various facilities, thus reducing the potential for the occurrence of foodborne illness outbreaks. Our results from Fort Liberty show a significant relationship between missing employee food safety training and deficien- cies associated with all CDC foodborne ill- ness risk factors identified via inspection. Facilities with a greater number of identified foodborne illness risk factors due to incor- rect practices also had a lack of food safety training. When food service facilities main- tained the required food safety training, they exhibited fewer identified deficiencies (e.g., food from unsafe sources, inadequate cook- ing, improper holding temperature, con- taminated equipment). Having the required food safety training, however, did not elimi- nate deficiencies, likely due to various fac- tors among FSEs.
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Volume 87 • Number 6
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