A simple dynamic to promote the improvement of good manufacturing practices at a school cafeteria of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Abstract

A strategy to improve good manufacturing practices was applied at a school cafeteria (Belo Horizonte, Brazil). The Quality Signal in Food Services (SQUAN) consists of a strategy to evaluate the degree of compliance of food services to good practices, which includes classifying your sectors into different traffic-based colors. Inspections were performed in all cafeteria sectors for three months. Items evaluated were classified as “compliant” or “non-compliant” with the Resolution 216 from Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency. Sectors with 80-100% of compliance were assigned the “Green Signal”; 60-80% “Yellow Signal”; and less than 60% “Red Signal”. The present study aimed at evaluating whether the SQUAN was a good strategy to improve school’s cafeteria overall hygiene. Meat and side dish, salad, and dessert sectors displayed an improvement of 87%, 12%, and 35% regarding compliance to good practices, respectively. The salad sector reached the “Yellow Signal”, but the remaining sectors reached the “Green Signal” and remained there until the end of the study. To our knowledge, until this time no study proposes the use of traffic-light-based colors as an educational means for implementing good manufacturing practices in food service. In conclusion, SQUAN was an effective strategy to improve hygienic/sanity conditions at a cafeteria.