Proposed Classification System For Restaurants And Food Establishments In Hebron City

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the extent to which restaurants in Hebron met the health and safety requirements of the Palestinian Ministry of Health . And the proposal and design of a list of reliable and applicable standards in the classification of restaurants approved by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the accredited bodies to be followed in the licensing process of restaurants. A cross-sectional design was adopted in order to describe the current situation of restaurants at this period of time. To collect data required for designing and establishing a classification tool (instrument) a checklist had been developed based on the procedures followed in different regional countries mainly in Gulf states. This checklist was developed to cover all items related to in-door and out-door environment of the restaurants including: infrastructure requirements, raw food receiving and storage, food preparation, cooked food presentation and keeping, staff personal hygiene, environmental workers condition, medical and health check-up for workers, and inspection conducted by the authorized parties mainly the ministry of health. A list of licensed restaurants (about 110 restaurants) were collected from the Hebron Municipality and the environmental health department at Hebron Public Health directorate. Based on this list 50 restaurants were randomly selected (convenience sample) taking into account to include different levels of restaurants (i.e. high class, falafel, sandwiches, and quick meals). All questionnaires were filled in by conducting face to face interviews with the restaurants’ owners in addition to the observations that took by the researchers. Findings of our study shown that: ………Where the results showed a very significant improvement with regard to the reality of restaurants in the city of Hebron after what happened in last summer of the This study was conducted to determine the extent to which restaurants in Hebron met the health and safety requirements of the Palestinian Ministry of Health . And the proposal and design of a list of reliable and applicable standards in the classification of restaurants approved by the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the accredited bodies to be followed in the licensing process of restaurants. A cross-sectional design was adopted in order to describe the current situation of restaurants at this period of time. To collect data required for designing and establishing a classification tool (instrument) a checklist had been developed based on the procedures followed in different regional countries mainly in Gulf states. This checklist was developed to cover all items related to in-door and out-door environment of the restaurants including: infrastructure requirements, raw food receiving and storage, food preparation, cooked food presentation and keeping, staff personal hygiene, environmental workers condition, medical and health check-up for workers, and inspection conducted by the authorized parties mainly the ministry of health. A list of licensed restaurants (about 110 restaurants) were collected from the Hebron IV Municipality and the environmental health department at Hebron Public Health directorate. Based on this list 50 restaurants were randomly selected (convenience sample) taking into account to include different levels of restaurants (i.e. high class, falafel, sandwiches, and quick meals). All questionnaires were filled in by conducting face to face interviews with the restaurants’ owners in addition to the observations that took by the researchers. Findings of our study shown that: ………Where the results showed a very significant improvement with regard to the reality of restaurants in the city of Hebron after what happened in last summer of the tragic measures of the closure of a good number of restaurants in the city as a result of non-compliance with the conditions of health and safety of food tragic measures of the closure of a good number of restaurants in the city as a result of non-compliance with the conditions of health and safety of food . We can conclude that the levels of commitment were varied among studied restaurants but in general it was found that the main core of health conditions requirements was adopted by majority of studied restaurants which gives an indication that continuous inspection and monitoring conducting by the ministry of health inspectors and the last actions that took place by the ministry of health including closing restaurants which not follow these requirements and had a potential risk to consumers’ health could be the main factor standing behind this result. Moreover, and based on the findings the study recommends that a classification system should be adopted and be applied in order to give the real picture of all existed restaurants and a written licensing and inspection guideline should be followed by the authorized parties mainly the ministry of health.