Investigation of knowledge of food industries operators from different food industries of food manufacturing plant and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Food industry is a flourishing industry which needs an excellent and reliable food safety system to ensure that consumers are consistently well protected from unconsciously consuming food that contain hazardous substances which can bring consequences in their health. The food safety system and hygiene procedures are being implemented by various food industries all over the world including Malaysia. On a different perspective, Malaysia
is still considered to be in the medium range of implementing extensive food safety system as only a few industries and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that are aware of the system completely. This study aims to determine the implementation of food safety and hygiene procedures by identifying the knowledge of food operators in the production sector and also proper handling methods of food products in the flow of food supply chain. The
food safety system which are mainly being observed to be implemented are GMP, GDP,HACCP, SOP, MESTI, BeSS and also other relevant hygiene procedures. Extensive literature review regarding food safety system was done to understand of the system implementation. In this study, survey was conducted based on the food safety system and
hygiene procedures and questionnaires which consist of three sections were as survey data which were analyzed by using SPSS 21.0. It involved 46 participants from manufacturing plants and 134 participants of SMEs from the area of Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The study findings shows that manufacturers of plants and SMEs are interested in implementing food safety system and proper hygiene procedures but they have constraints like lack of technologies and effective information transfer medium. Moreover, several factors such as policy guidance, time limitation, extensive food safety system regulations, laws and standards and support from the government causes the success rate of food safety system implementation to be reduced. The outcome of this study determined that 97 food operators of the manufacturing plants and SMEs have
implemented or plan to implement the food safety system and hygiene procedures and 83 food operators of manufacturing plants and SMEs did not implement the food safety system and proper hygiene methods in handling of food products.