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New App Developed to Concealed Food Safety Checks

 

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Researchers have developed a new smartphone app that help food inspectors inconspicuously collect data related to food safety observations in restaurants and supermarkets without any fuss. The study was published in the journal Food Protection Trends.

The app helps create of checklists to record aspects such as hand hygiene, the adequacy of hand-washing facilities, the temperature in coolers holding ready-to-eat foods and the presence of potentially hazardous foods. It allows observers to easily add photos, audio, videos and open-ended notes to their reports.

"Direct concealed observations have been used to minimize the Hawthorne Effect during observational data collection in various settings, but some limitations can include the need to memorize observations or take notes out of sight of those being observed," said Ms Cutter, professor at the Pennsylvania State University in US.

"The app can be used as a non-threatening tool to make direct, concealed behavioral observations and no one will ever realize you are doing it," Cutter added.


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