Performance Assessment of Food Safety and Hygiene in Physical Stores Engaged in Online Food Business in Taiwan

Abstract

To examine the safety of food purchased online, a food safety project was conducted by the Office of Food and Drug Safety (OFDS) of Taichung City. Through collaboration with eight universities, the performance of food safety and hygiene in the physical stores engaged in online food businesses was assessed from October 2021 to January 2022. A total of 80 physical stores were involved in the present project. The results indicate that the most common nonconformities were as follows: (1) the food service standard form contract for distance transactions was not correctly displayed on websites (71%), (2) the food-related items were not sorted, were not stored on pallet boards or racks, and were not kept clean (46%), (3) the food preparation area and sales area did not have appropriate and adequate equipment for hand washing and drying (33%), and (4) the food safety and hygiene self-evaluation checklist was not prepared (33%). More efforts regarding food safety and hygiene are needed to improve and secure the knowledge of, attitude towards, and skills for good food safety and hygiene practices of online food businesses.

Keywords

• food safety and hygiene
• online food business
• Taiwan