A survey of environmental health officers' views of food hygiene training

In both their enforcement and training role environmental health officers (EHOs) may influence businesses' attitudes to hygiene training. A survey was conducted to examine EHOs' experience and perceptions of the provision and effectiveness of food hygiene training in small food businesses. The results indicate that officers had concerns about the content and the delivery of hygiene courses and about the quality of other hygiene trainers. Officers use the industry guides to advise on training but receive limited guidance on the assessment of hygiene training in the workplace. The checking of training records was considered to be less important than the use of observation and questioning for assessing hygiene training effectiveness. Environmental factors, such as supervisor support and situational aids were judged by officers to be important factors in the implementation of workplace hygiene training. They reported low levels of formal refresher training and active support of training by management.