PROJECT PROPOSAL

ON
MAINTAINING FOOD HYGIENE STANDARDS TO COMBAT FOOD POISONING IN
THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IN HOTEL
BY
AZEEZ SEKINAT MOTUNRAYO
1505012040

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Hygiene has existed for as long as men found it necessary to take good care of their body: but
hygiene, as it is now understood, has its roots from the Greek who understood that hygiene is from
their goddess known as hyginia. Nowadays, people now understand why they should take good care
of their body and their immediate environment. Hygiene is necessary for everybody especially
those handling food because the health and well-being of hundreds of people are in their hands.
(Rippington, 2008)
Hygiene is the science and practice of preserving health and is very important for all persons
handling food or drink in the industry. Neglect in care and cleaning of any part of the premises
equipment and the body could lead to risk of infection and diseases to maintain a hygienic working
environment and condition a wide range of cleaning materials are needed. Hygiene is the study of
health and the prevention of diseases, because of the dangers of food poisoning and diseases.
Hygiene requires attention from everyone in the food and drink industry. There are germs
everywhere particularly in and on our body, some of these germs are transferred to food and cannot
be seen with the naked eyes, and so food which looks clean and does not smell or taste bad may be
dangerous to eat because it may contain harmful germs.
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Food safety plays a significant role in the economic and health development of Nations by safe
guarding the nations health, enhancing tourism and international trade, the production, distribution
and consumption of safe food (WHO, 2005). Despite the importance of food safety, there seem to
be few quality control systems to guard against food-related illnesses, in developing countries,
some of which may be fatal while others can lead to expensive medical care. The magnitude of
food borne diseases is illustrated by various statistics. Illnesses from food related diseases
outnumber illness from all other environmental factors combined. Over 66% of food-borne
illnesses are caused by bacterial pathogens (Byran, 2002).
Worldwide, the incidences of diarrhoeal diseases alone have been estimated to be 400 million cases
per year, which indicates a serious underlying food safety problem (Byran, 2002). The direct cost
of foodborne illness outbreak can approximate $75,000 per food service establishment and these
can include investigation clean- up, restaffing, restocking, product loss, settlements and increased
regulatory sanctions(Hannington, 2002)
FAO/WHO (2002) main objective is to ensure nutritional and safe food for all people at all times
for productive and healthy life. Food service operators have a major responsibility since their
actions can affect the health of many people. Food-borne diseases are major public health problem
estimated to affect up to 10% or more of the population in the industrialised countries (WHO,
2005).
Food and water-borne diseases in the developing countries are prevalent and epidemiological
examinations have indicated large proportions of food-borne diseases which result from poor food
sanitation and unhygienic handling of foods in restaurants and other eating outlets (Antoria, 2002).
Sanitation issues in food production comprises of four components which include quality of the raw
food, personal hygiene of the personnel handling the food, the sanitation of the environment where
the food is being stored, prepared and served, as well as of the equipment being used. (Fosket and
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Ceserani, 2007). A default in the hygiene and sanitation standards of any of these components can
result in food contamination and subsequently food poisoning which must be avoided.
The result of eating contaminated food is food poisoning (Duyff, 2006). Whereas accurate
statistical figures were available for the developed countries, WHO raises a concern about the non
documentation of food poisoning cases and food-borne diseases in developing countries of which
Nigeria is one (World Health Organization, 2008). Since food borne diseases may go
undocumented, the absence of a disease outbreak will result in a false sense of security which
reduces vigilance and a relaxing of adherence to effective prevention programs such as maintenance
of hygiene and sanitation standards as pre-empted by the World Health Report (2007).
Another major issue of documentation here is that endemic surveillances are often done by
governments using statistics available at public hospitals. These records are normally of the general
populace, majority of which do not eat in prestigious hotels. Assumedly, food poisoning resulting
from food contamination in a hotel may not be immediately traceable to such a hotel since
individuals who eat from the hotels are often visitors who may only exhibit symptoms of food
poisoning much later after they have checked out of the hotels and have gone to various parts of the
country and beyond. As such, the effect of hygiene and sanitation infractions by hoteliers and
restaurateurs may not be noticeable or appear to be very devastating or even result in an endemic
food-borne outbreak to attract authoritys attention. Yet the effect on even an individual may lead to
a small percentage of some long-term health problems (Duyff, 2006). This eventually has multiplier
effects on the family and society.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The cost of curing food-borne disease outbreaks as highlighted by WHO Fact Sheet, (2007) creates
an enormous social and economic burden on communities and their health system in the form of
medical costs and lost productivity. One way to ensure that hotel and restaurant operators do not
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compromise customers health in the provision of food and drinks is for the regulatory and
enforcement agencies to constantly supervise to ensure continual compliance with laid down food
hygiene and sanitation rules and regulations as argued by the FAO/WHO (2003). It is in the light of
this, that this study aimed to investigate to establish the hygiene and sanitation compliance levels in
hotels food and beverage operations in Bauchi metropolis in order to ensure prevention of food
poisoning and food borne diseases rather than to cure people affected by this menace.
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The broad objective of this study was to assess the level of compliance of hotels in Ikorodu with
hygiene standards and regulation. This will be achieved by addressing the following specific
objectives;
1. To assess the level of professional training held by both hotel operators and their food-handler
employees
2. To establish if hotel operators and their food handler employees are aware of the hygiene
standards and regulations which guide their operations.
3 To find out if regulatory and enforcement agencies carry out their statutory role of enforcing
compliance with the hygiene standards effectively.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions guided the study
1. What is the effect of food hygiene on food poisoning?
2. Do hospitality organizations comply with food hygiene regulations and standards?
3. What are the food safety control measures applied in hotels?
4. Is there a relationship between enforcement and the level of compliance with food hygiene
standards among hotels?
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RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
For easy analysis of the research study and as a basis for decision making on the research works,
the following hypotheses were formulated;
HYPOTHESIS ONE
H1: The level of compliance of hotels in Ikorodu with hygiene standards and regulations are not
above average.
H1: The level of compliance of hotels in Ikorodu with hygiene standards and regulations are above
average.
HYPOTHESIS TWO
H1: There is no significant relationship between enforcement and the level of compliance with
hygiene standards and regulations among hotels in Ikorodu
H1: There is a significant relationship between enforcement and the level of compliance with
hygiene standards and regulations among hotels in Ikorodu
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The results will be of importance to several parties. First, the management of hotels will find the
information on the analysis of the manufacturing practices such as food preparation, production and
service useful in identifying the critical stages of contamination that require systematic control.
Health regulatory authorities will have the information to establish policies for implementing good
manufacturing and hygiene practices. The public health offices can also find the results useful in
conducting training on food hygiene for hotel owners, employees and their suppliers. Hoteliers and
restaurateurs will benefit from the understanding of their social responsibility of safeguarding

public health through their operations. This study will also serve as reference material for future
research.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The findings of this study need to be interpreted in light of the certain methodological and
conceptual limitations. The scope of the study was limited to Sheriff Royale Hotel, Ikorodu and its
findings may not wholly explain the hygiene practices of hotels. Further, the findings are based on
the use of descriptive statistics and may be different if a more analytical technique is used to
examine the food hygiene measures. The study will be limited to evaluating the importance and
general regard given to hygiene in the hospitality industry. It would also review the effect of this
hygiene on the reduction of food poisoning.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research design to be used in this project is survey design. The reason for using this design is
that it helps the researcher to gain insight into the research topic. The research will be carried out at
Sheriff Royale Hotel, Ikorodu. Hotel staffs will be interviewed through the use of questionnaire. A
convenience sample of 50 subjects will be sampled using the probability sampling technique. The
instrument to be used for this research is the questionnaire. This instrument is preferred because of
its expressiveness in mode data collection and its presentation of uniformity to all respondent
enabling the researcher to have an easy analysis of data. Likewise, the unity that accompanies the
questionnaire which lead respondent to be more open and truthful. The questionnaires will be well
structured with close ended questions. The questionnaires will be personally distributed to the
subjects by the researcher. Simple descriptive analysis like percentage, mean etc. will be used for
statistical analysis. The hypothesis will be tested using chi square test

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Dietetic Association.
FAO/WHO (2002): Sharing information on national experiences in the general field of risk
management (Paper submitted by the delegation of France) Global forum of food safety
regulators (Agenda item 4.4) 1- 4.
FAO/WHO (2003) Risk Profile For Enterohemorragic E. Including The Identification Of The
Commodities Of Concern, Including Sprouts, Ground Beef And Pork. Codex Alimentarius
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Hanington, R.E. (1992): The role of employees in the spread of foodborne diseases-Food Industry
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Rippington, N. (2008). Professional Chef 1Level Diploma. UK. Cengage Learning EMEA.
WHO (2005): Food-borne diseases: A focus on health. WHO, Geneva, 24
World Health Organization (2007). Fact sheet No 237. Food Safety and Foodborne Illness. Google
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World Health Report (2007) A Safer Future. Global Public Health Security in the 21st Century.
Google Internet, November, 2008.