Analysis Of Food Hygiene Complaints From 2003 To 2007 In Xiacheng District, Hangzhou

Background With the improvement of people's awareness of food safety and self-protection,the number of food hygiene complaint cases filed has been increasing over the past years.Food Hygiene Complaints refer to the cases in which consumers file complaints to the health administrative department after consuming food or receiving the service provided,when their benefits or rights are believed to be violated, or simply because consumers feel obliged to do so because of social responsibility. Food Hygiene Complaints can help to reveal the existing problems in food hygiene administration,thus helping the administration adjust the approaches to better resolve the problem.Food Hygiene Complaints compensate for the inadequacy in food safety monitoring system.Food Hygiene Complaints display a great variety of the ways of filing,a wide range of the complaint objects,the complexity of the aims of the complaints and the objectivity of the complaint submitters.How to well take care of food hygiene complaints is a critical issue for the food safety administration.In this study,we investigated the present status of food hygiene complaints, existing food hygiene problems as well as the way they are evolving by analyzing the cases occurred in Xiacheng District during 2003～2007,and suggested appropriate measures for solving food hygiene complaints and improving food safety administration.. Materials and Methods Objects:The registry of Food Hygiene Complaints maintained by------Xiacheng District.Methods:standardizing the registry according to the Food Hygiene Complaints Filing and Response Act(Draft) by categorizing and analyzing the complaints with regard to the number of cases,the ways of filing,temporal and spatial distribution, type of the complaint objects,facts and authenticity of the complaints.Results In 2003～2007,the cases of complaints have been on a gradual rise, whereas the percentage of food hygiene complaints has decreased.The complaints were predominantly submitted via phone call(74.17%),comparing to those transferred from the food safety administration of an upper level(18.46%).Temporally, complaints filed in Q3 constitute 32.30%of the total cases.73.55%of the complaints were received during office hours,compared to 26.65%during non-office hours which is in increase.On-site responses were carried out in 34.37%of the total cases,with 41.28%on-site responses occurred in non-office hours,which is again on rise.The objects of complaints are predominantly restaurants and corporate dining halls (64.39%),which are on rise.The contents of complaints include food decomposition (22.25%),questions about Hygiene License(19.01%) and suspicious objects in food (17.98%).Top three types of complaints related to food consumption are suspicious objects in food,food decomposition and questions about Hygiene License.Top three types of complaints towards groceries are food decomposition,questions about Hygiene License and sickness after food consumption.Validation of the complaints reveals that 39.67%are genuine,22.80%are fraud,while the other 35.61%lack evidences.Complaints occurred in food consumption showed a higher percentage of authenticity than those in merchandise circulation.Complaints towards sanitary conditions,hygiene license management and dining utensil hygiene appeared be easier to validate,while sickness after consumption,suspicious objects in food and food decomposition are in general harder to validate due to the lack of evidences. Conclusion In general,food hygiene complaints have been increasing over the past years,particularly in restaurants equal to or below level C and in the third quarte, with a low rate of validation.It is important to carry out propaganda campaigns to the local community and to strengthen the management of small restaurants.It is also important to carry out special food hygiene investigation campaign in summer season and to establish an efficient emergency response team for the food hygiene complaints.