Essential of Hygienic Practices on Bacterial Contamination in some Restaurants of Al- Karkh Area, Baghdad, Iraq

This study aimed to evaluate good manufacturing practices in food safety of ten different restaurants in the Al-Karkh area of Baghdad, Iraq. Forty samples collected from were collected from knives, food cutting boards, tables, hands and nails workers in restaurants. In addition. 70 food handlers were selected. Through structured interviews, information on the checklist for Good Manufacturing Practices in Food Safety, Food handlers’ general checklist for good hygiene, and Personal Hygiene Checklist were collected. The overall viable bacterial count before Good Hygiene Practices was significantly higher (P<0.05) than the total bacterial counts after Good Hygiene Practices. The highest viable bacterial counts before Good Hygiene Practices were recorded by food cutting boards (4.03±0.20) log10 cfu/cm2, while (3.90±0.23, 3.51±0.18, 3.00±0.18) log10 cfu/cm2 from tables, hands and nails of workers and knives respectively. Although the results showed a non-significant difference in the viable bacterial counts after Good Hygiene Practices from 10 restaurants collected from the AL-Karkh area. The percentages were (100%) after the training and lecture about Good Hygiene Practices to all checklist points except special basins for washing hands was (90%). However, the results of the General Information of food handlers of Good Hygiene checklist and Personal Hygiene Checklist showed that there were significant differences (P≤0.05) between the self-reported attitudes of food handlers before the one-week training and after Good Hygiene Practices.