Abstract
The principal objective of this study was to assess dietitian's awareness and performance with regard to food suppliers' selection guidelines and purchase guidelines for the receipt of safe food materials. A questionnaire was administered to 203 dietitians working at an elementary school in Gyeonggi North province, and 190 responses were ultimately returned. Excluding responses with incomplete answers and significant missing data, 161 responses(79.3%) were ultimately utilized for data analysis. We determined that meat/poulty and seafood were purchased mainly by manufacturer's branch(59.8% and 78.3%), and processed food and kimchi were generally purchased by producer's cooperatives(47.7% and 44.9%). 78.3% of the contracts were made via informal purchasing and the frequency of contracts was less than 3 times per year(53.4%). Market studies were conducted individually(54.7%), and by group(47.2%). Dietitian and parents volunteered(50.3%) or dietitians, and school and foodservice staffs(45.3%) participated - together in receiving and inspection. School contracted with $4{\sim}5$(39.1%) and $6{\sim}8$ food suppliers(29.8%). Dietitians(42.3%) or school councils(40.2%) evaluated food suppliers once per semester(60.2%). The majority of dietitians(96.3%) conducted sanitary education for food suppliers once per semester (68.3%). All 13 guidelines which were usually used to evaluate food suppliers were thought to be important(more than 4) based on a 5 scale(1: never important, 5: very important). Among them, 'sanitary storage status of food products(4.85)', 'have a chill car(4.83)' and 'proper control of refrigerator, freezer and storage room(4.81)' were the most crucial guidelines. As dietitians evaluated food supplier's-observances of 13 guidelines, 'have a chill car(4.89)', 'hold medical examination of employees(4.89)' and 'hold liability insurance for handling product(4.80)' were fulfilled relatively well. The guidelines for conducting education for their employees(4.45) and keeping their establishment and equipment sanitary(4.79) were important, but were not observed well(3.39 and 3.37). Additionally, the difference between the importance and the observance score of the 'HACCP certificate' were fairly significant(4.44 and 3.54). Dietitians tended to report that purchasing management related to the removal of foodborne illness factors(4.71), return confirmation(4.50) and purchase specification(4.32) were important. The difference between importance and performance was highest in the process of changing food suppliers when the contracts were violated more than three times. Dietitian's age, education work experience and employment type had no observable effects on how important they considered purchase management to be, but their work experience significantly affected performance in terms of the removal of foodborne illness factors(p<0.05). As supplier management is the most critical factor, it is clearly desirable to educate suppliers at specialized training centers and to supervise suppliers in accordance with the established sanitary guidelines.
