• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.37 no.5
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• pp.376-386
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• 2011

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the microbial hazards posed by food utensils and fixtures in food service operations at selected middle and high schools located in Seoul, Korea. Methods: We collected 200 samples of utensils and fixtures including cups, spoons/chopsticks, food trays and tables from five different schools in Seoul. Target microorganisms of this study were divided into two groups: total bacterial count and total coliform as indicators of microbial contamination and Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus as pathogens of food poisoning. We used selective media to quantify microbial concentration and 16S rRNA PCR assay for qualitative analysis. In addition, intensive interviews with nutritionists were conducted and observations were made to identify factors that may affect microbial contamination. Logistic regression analysis was employed to examine the relationship between the microbial concentration and operation characteristics of each operation. Results: The level of microbial concentration in school B and C were significantly lower than in school A, D and E (p<0.05). Some samples from school A, D and E showed over 3.4 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ (total bacterial count) and 1.0 log CFU/100 $cm^2$ (total coliform), which requires immediate hygienic action. The number of customers per staff member, periodicity of hygiene education for staff and daily operation time of sterilizers were also found to be important factors related with the microbial contamination of food service operations. Conclusions: These results suggested that not only a HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) approach, but also efforts to assess internal risk factors within operations be needed to reduce the microbial contamination of food utensils and fixtures. This study is expected to provide preliminary data for assessing microbial hazards in food service operations.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.613-617
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• 1997

This study was performed to investigate the effects of the type of utensils (onggi, aluminum, enamel coated, stainless-steel and stone), cooking sources (deionized-water, doenjang soup and kochujang soup), and cooking time (0, 10, 20, and 30 min) on aluminum leaching. Aluminum content leached by onggi, aluminum, enamel coated, stainless-steel and stone was $0.53{\sim}2.76,\;1.17{\sim}4.20,\;0.77{\sim}3.23,\;0.53{\sim}2.03,\;0.83{\sim}2.70$ ppm in deionized-water, respectively; $4.60{\sim}7.73,\;6.45{\sim}11.50,\;5.53{\sim}9.27,\;3.50{\sim}6.70,\;5.00{\sim}9.13$ ppm in doenjang soup, respectively; $5.18{\sim}9.70,\;6.30{\sim}11.23,\;4.73{\sim}8.63,\;3.23{\sim}6.50,\;4.50{\sim}9.25$ ppm in kochujang soup, respectively. The leached aluminum content was increased with the elapse of cooking time. Aluminum utensil showed the highest leached aluminum content among different types of utensils.

• Journal of the Korean Home Economics Association
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.155-168
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• 1982

What is attempted here is to find out an optimum method for the design of physical environments that could save human energy expenditures and safely perform household duties. There are, if any, very little amount of research done in this area. This is particulary so when the work relates to the designing of household storage facilities in the light of the energy metabolism of human body. The first step to this study, therefore, is to find out the ways by which we can determine the energy metabolism of human body accurately. To measure the volume and the concentration of human respiration continuously and automatically, a new apparatus is selected here. This includes the recording system with the Wright Respirometer and the Expired Gas Analyzer as well as the computer system to multiply volume by concentration of human respiration and to integrate them for a given time. Then, the author experimented on the reliability of this apparatus and came to the conclusion that this apparatus satisfied our need to research the energy metabolism of human body. Next, the general plan and procedures to experiment with this apparatus have been determined as follows: 1) subjects are three young and sound females. Their physical characteristics are shown in Table 1 and most approximates the standard characteristics of Japanese females, 2) height of open shelves is selected in such away as to correspond to the respective height of each subject(see Table 2), 3) utensils to be stored are box shaped object, which weight is 0.5kg, 1.0kg, 2.0kg or 3.0kg, 4) working motions are given while one or two hands as to place utensil on each shelf from the standard working board, 85 cm in height and then to place back it on the board from the shelf and repeated in constant velocity as 10 times per a minute, 5) each posture of motion is chosen by each subject in free, 6) procedures of measurement of human energy metabolism ard shown at(6), 1, Section 3 as specific methods for using this apparatus. Findings of this study are as follows: 1. Human energy expenditures for storing utensils on shelves by each subject are shown in quantity more accurately than in any other studies, under varying conditions about height of shelves, load of utensils and working motion with one hand and two hands (see Fig. 8~13 and Table 3). 2. Experimental formulae of human energy expenditure for that work are shown as formula (8), (9) and (10), to generalize results of 1. and to apply those for working motion under given conditions. 3. As results of analysis on gained data, we are able to show the standard model of human energy expenditures for storing untensils on shelves by the standard Japanese female (see Table 7 and Fig. 14).

• Food Science and Preservation
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.317-322
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• 2005

The purposes of this study were to assess the microbiological contamination level of various disposable kitchen utensils and evaluate the effectiveness of gamma irradiation as a sterilization process for the utensils. The 51 kinds in 17 groups of disposable kitchen utensils were tested for the enumeration of total aerobic plate count, coliforms, fungi and Salmonella. Generally, cell density of microorganisms in disposable kitchen utensils were lower than that of cooking utensils currently using in kitchen. The survivals of total aerobic plate counts, putrefactive bacteria, on the surface of the disposable utensils were ranged up to $10^3\;CFU/100\;cm^2$. Filamentous fungi were detected in 13 samples. Coliform bacteria were detected in two kinds of samples but Salmonella spp. was detected below detection limits in all the samples. The microorganisms survived on the surface of utensils were effectively eliminated by gamma irradiation process at 3 kGy.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.228-235
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• 2023

Peanut is a well-known food allergen that causes adverse reactions ranging from mild urticaria to life-threatening anaphylaxis. Consumers suffering from peanut allergies should thus avoid consuming undeclared peanuts in processed foods. Therefore, effective cleaning methods are needed to remove food allergens from manufacturing facilities. To address this, wet cleaning methods with washing water at different temperatures, abstergents (peracetic acid, sodium bicarbonate, dilute sodium hypochlorite, detergent), and cleaning tools (brush, sponge, paper towel, and cotton) were investigated to remove peanuts from materials used in food manufacture, including plastics, wood, glass, and stainless steel. Peanut butter was coated on the surface of the glass, wood, stainless steel, and plastic for 30 min and cleaned using wet cleaning. The peanut residue on the cleaned surfaces was swabbed and determined using an optimized enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Cleaning using a brush and hot water above 50℃ showed an effective reduction of peanut residue from the surface. However, removing peanuts from wooden surfaces was complicated. These results provide information for selecting appropriate materials in food manufacturing facilities and cleaning methods to remove food allergens. Additionally, the cleaning methods developed in this study can be applied to further research on removing other food allergens.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.13-27
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• 2015

A systemic review on the factors affecting food catering hygiene was conducted to provide information for risk management of food catering in Korea. In total 47 keywords relating to food catering and food hygiene were searched for published journals in the DBpia for the last decade (2005-2014). As a result, 1,178 published papers were searched and 142 articles were collected by the expert review. To find the major factors affecting food catering and microbial safety, an analysis based on organization and stakeholder were conducted. School catering (64 papers) was a major target rather than industry (5 pagers) or hospitals (3 papers) in the selected articles. The factors affecting school catering were "system/facility/equipment (15 papers)", "hygiene education (12 papers)", "production/delivery company (6 papers)", food materials (4 papers)" and "any combination of the above factors (9 papers)". The major problems are follow. 1) The problems of "system/facility/equipment" were improper space division/separation, lack of mass cooking utensil, lack of hygiene control equipment, difficulty in temperature and humidity control, and lack of cooperation in the HACCP team (dietitian's position), poor hygienic classroom in the case of class dining (students'), hard workload/intensity of labor, poor condition of cook's safety (cook's) and lack of parents' monitoring activity (parents'). 2) The problem of "hygiene education' were related to formal and perfunctory hygiene education, lack of HACCP education, lack of compliance of hygiene practice (cook's), lack of personal hygiene education and little effect of education (students'). 3) The problems of "production/delivery company" were related to hygiene of delivery truck and temperature control, hygiene of employee in the supplying company and control of non-accredited HACCP company. 4) The area of "food materials" cited were distrust of safety regarding to raw materials, fresh cut produces, and pre-treated food materials. 5) In addition, job stability/the salary can affect the occupational satisfaction and job commitment. And job stress can affect the performance and the hygiene practice. It is necessary for the government to allocate budget for facility and equipment, conduct field survey, improve hygiene training program and inspection, prepare certification system, improve working condition of employees, and introducing hygiene and layout consulting by experts. The results from this study can be used to prepare education programs and develop technology for improving food catering hygiene and providing information.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.264-270
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• 2021

In this study we investigated the elution level of lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), arsenic (As), zinc (Zn), nickel (Ni), antimony (Sb), germanium (Ge), aluminum (Al) and hexavalent chromium (Cr⁶⁺) from 69 home-cooking utensils into a food stimulants. The results of migration testing according to the Korea standards and specifications for utensils, containers and packages showed values the allowable migrantion limits. Al was detected in all 7 utensil materials with the average concentration ranging from 0.002-5.989 mg/L. According to the migration conditions for (180℃, 30 min), the average concentration of Al in paper was 7.2 times higher than 25℃, 10 min (P<0.05). The results of migration testing at 180℃, 30 min were also below the allowable migrantion limits. When comparing with the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) of Al, the estimated weekly intakes (EWI) accounted for 0.000-0.045% for Al.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.44 no.12
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• pp.1895-1904
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• 2015

Foodborne illness associated with food service establishments is an important food safety issue in Korea. In this study, foodborne pathogens (Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli, pathogenic Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Vibrio parahaemolyticus) and hygiene indicator organisms [total viable cell counts (TVC), coliforms] were analyzed for food and environmental samples from foodservice establishments at schools in Gyeonggi province. Virulence factors and antimicrobial resistance of detected foodborne pathogens were also characterized. A total of 179 samples, including food (n=66), utensil (n=68), and environmental samples (n=45), were collected from eight food service establishments at schools in Gyeonggi province. Average contamination levels of TVC for foods (including raw materials) and environmental samples were 4.7 and 4.0 log CFU/g, respectively. Average contamination levels of coliforms were 2.7 and 4.0 log CFU/g for foods and environmental swab samples, respectively. B. cereus contamination was detected in food samples with an average of 2.1 log CFU/g. E. coli was detected only in raw materials, and S. aureus was positive in raw materials as well as environmental swab samples. Other foodborne pathogens were not detected in all samples. The entire B. cereus isolates possessed at least one of the diarrheal toxin genes (hblACD, nheABC, entFM, and cytK enterotoxin gene). However, ces gene encoding emetic toxin was not detected in B. cereus isolates. S. aureus isolates (n=16) contained at least one or more of the tested enterotoxin genes, except for tst gene. For E. coli and S. aureus, 92.7% and 37.5% of the isolates were susceptible against 16 and 19 antimicrobials, respectively. The analyzed microbial hazards could provide useful information for quantitative microbial risk assessment and food safety management system to control foodborne illness outbreaks in food service establishments.