Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate the effects of the characteristics of dietitians, the characteristics of school food services, equipment ratio of HACCP facility/equipment and perception of barriers to HACCP implementation on external and internal audit of food safety/sanitation management performance in school food service. An e-mail survey was conducted with 144 dietitians in Gyeongbuk Province. A response rate was 57.6% (N=83) and data was analyzed using SPSS windows (ver. 12.0). Dietitian perceived facilities/equipment-related and stakeholder-related as the big barriers in implementing a HACCP system. Total scores of sanitation/safety management performance for external and internal audit were similar at 92 and 91 out of 100, respectively. "Facilities/equipment" and "HACCP system" categories in both external and internal audit were rated the lowest. As dietitian perceived facilities/equipment-related (p<0.001) and stakeholder-related (p<0.05) barriers to HACCP implementation were greater, the scores of the external and internal audits were significantly lower. As dietitian perceived barriers for all categories were greater, the scores of internal audits were significantly lower (p<0.05). As a result of multiple regression analyses, the scores of the external audit was positively associated with career as a school food service dietitian, but was negatively associated with barriers related to facility/equipment, while the scores of the internal audit was negatively associated with barriers related to facility/equipment and employees. This study suggests that supporting programs on securing the facilities/equipment and employee training are needed for successful HACCP implementation in school food service.

• Keywords: school food service; barriers to implementing a HACCP system; sanitary management performance