ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
the respondents who said yes, “What would you change about your inspection pro- cess?” This question was open-ended and responses varied, but some of the more com- mon themes included having inspections scheduled, making inspections a more con- sultative and educational experience, having better consistency among jurisdictions and inspectors, and having more frequent and thorough inspections. We also found that three quarters of sur- vey respondents were very satisfied (57%) or somewhat satisfied (18%) with their interactions with the health inspector. We asked, “How has your relationship changed with your health inspector over the last 2 years due to COVID-19?” Most respon- dents said the relationship has not changed (76%), while 11% said the relationship has improved and 4% said the relationship has worsened. When asked to describe how their relationship has changed over the last 2 years, the responses varied from reaching out and asking their health inspector more questions to not seeing their inspector at all during the pandemic. One respondent shared, “Haven’t seen them at all (inspector). Zero feedback, zero interac- tion, zero answers to questions in messages I’ve left on voicemail or in emails.” Furthermore, another respondent mentioned that “health inspections seem to be more outcome-based rather than punitive. Much more positive interaction and helpful ideas/information.”
TABLE 1
Demographic Information From a Survey of Minnesota Food Workers ( N = 1,535)
Question
#
%
Which category best describes your age? 15–20 years
18
1 9
21–30 years 31–40 years 41–50 years
134 303 370 706
20 24 46 66 43 40 27 23 18
≥51years
What are your primary work duties at this job? (Check all that apply.) Management
1,013
Food preparation
663 618 422 352 278
Cooking
Front of the house service
Dishwashing
Bartending/coffee service
What is your primary language? English
1,473
96
Spanish
29
2 0 0 0 1 0
Chinese (any dialect)
4 4 3
Vietnamese
Hmong
I prefer not to answer
10
Other
7
How many years have you worked in food service? <1 year
16
1
1–5 years
187 243 198 891
12 16 13 58
Employee Illness Practices and Policies
6–10 years 11–15 years
To assess illness reporting, we asked survey respondents if they had been sick with vom- iting or diarrhea in the past 3 months: 86% said no, 13% said yes, and 1% were unsure (Table 4). We asked those respondents who reported being sick, “Did you tell your super- visor that you were experiencing vomiting or diarrhea before reporting to work?” Of the respondents, 80% said yes and 20% said no (Figure 1). For respondents who reported not telling their supervisor, the main reasons were because the food worker did not want to lose their shift (46%) and that they were worried there would be consequences from management (32%). We then asked all respondents, “Does your restaurant management require employees to report when they are sick with vomiting
>15 years
Have you ever been a certified food protection manager? Yes
1,357
88 12
No
178
If yes, is your certification still valid? ( n = 1,357) Yes
1,242
92
No
115
8
or diarrhea?” Of the respondents, 80% said yes, 16% said no, and 4% were unsure. We then asked, “If an employee comes into work while sick with vomiting or diarrhea, how does management respond?” Most respon- dents (88%) said management would send the worker home and 4% said management would do nothing.
Furthermore, 75% of survey respondents said management maintained an illness log to record employee illness. For the 11% who said that management did not maintain an ill- ness log, the reasons varied, with food work- ers not knowing why management did not maintain a log (35%) and being unaware of a log requirement (21%).
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Volume 86 • Num)er 10
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