Food safety training and sanitation inspection ratings in selected food service facilities

The purpose of the study was to determine whether safety and sanitation courses were improving food safety in Mississippi. The study compared information from health inspection reports for food service facilities with and without a certified manager. The population for this study consisted of all full service foodservice facilities with an average risk level of 3 and 4 that were inspected by the Mississippi State Department of Health.; Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, Version 10.0 (SPSS/PC inc. 2000). The Pearson chi-square was used to test the overall relationships between the independent variable and dependent variable. The researcher established an alpha level of .05 a priori.; Data consisted of 31,081 Mississippi State Department of Health inspections. Data were used from 27,770 Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point inspections and 3,311 follow-up inspections. Data were not used in 526 inspections because the inspection reports did not include the type of inspection.; The results showed 1,880 level 3 and 4 facilities did not have certified managers. Results also revealed that 562 (29.9%) facilities within the non-certified group failed the HACCP inspection and 1,318 (70.1%) within the non-certified group passed the HACCP inspection. Of the 20,398 level 3 and 4 facilities with a certified manager, 2,052 (10.1%) failed the HACCP inspection and 18,346 (89.9%) passed the HACCP inspection. Having a certified manager significantly increased the likelihood of a facility passing inspection.; Once a facility failed the HACCP inspection, there was no significant difference between certified and non-certified facilities in the number of follow-up visits or the number or reasons for facilities to pass the Mississippi State Department of Health Inspection and Re-application inspection.