EWC661: PROPOSAL SAMPLE

COMPARISON OF FOOD HYGIENE BETWEEN FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS

AND RESTAURANTS IN SHAH ALAM

1. INTRODUCTION

Food service sector in Malaysia is sizeable and rapidly growing. It is diverse as the cultures
in Malaysia with wide range of processed food. This industry is predominantly Malaysian-
owned, dominated by small and medium scale companies (SMEs). Besides the SMEs, there
are notable foreign and MNCs companies producing processed food products in Malaysia.
There are several types of food establishments can in Malaysia such as restaurants which are
made up of low end to high end full service restaurants which include full service restaurant
that serve a wide range of cuisine from all over the world and fast food restaurant.

Full service restaurant is established with a relatively broad menu along with table, counter
and/or booth service and a wait staff to take order. These establishments offer meals and
snacks for immediate consumption primarily on premise, though they may also offer takeout
service. They also provide complete and varied breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, along
with wide selection of food and beverages and also dining table for their customers.

Fast food restaurants are basically known as franchise operation where consistent ingredients
or ready to eat foods and supplies are organized by supply networks. The popularity of the
fast food restaurant amongst children and adolescent is due to its readily available, taste, low
cost, marketing strategies, and peer pressure (Jaya, Manish, & Ankit, 2011). Fast food
restaurants focus in maximizing the speed, efficiency, and conformity. In order to reduce the
waiting time, the menu is kept limited to enhance efficiency. The consumption of fast food in
Malaysia is increasing significantly year by year causing the demands for it to be increased.

Food hygiene are the conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety of food from
production to consumption. Food can become contaminated at any point during slaughtering
or harvesting, processing, storage, distribution, transportation and preparation. Lack of
adequate food hygiene can lead to foodborne diseases and death of the consumer while food
safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways
that prevent food-borne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illnesses
resulting from the ingestion of a common food is known as a Food-borne disease outbreak.
 2. PROBLEM STATEMENT

Health department inspections of fast food restaurants and restaurants is not the only party
that is responsible for the restaurant’s indicator for their food safety and hygiene. Most
people went to restaurants to eat without having basic knowledge on food safety and hygiene.
Everyone is responsible to carry out their inspections with respective restaurants. It is
important to know the basic knowledge of it due to many health issues caused from food. The
fact that people is busy to cook on their own and often to choose restaurants as a place to eat
because it is very convenient and less time consuming. The issue of the food safety and
hygiene concern among everyone whether students and workers. Most people are not fully
aware of the fact that how the restaurants handle their cleanliness is very important and how
it can affect one’s health. Moreover, learning the basic knowledge of food safety and hygiene
would be a benefit to consumer because workers in the restaurants can’t be rely on the time
because provisions from responsible parties cannot guarantee that all employees follow safe
food-handling practices, particularly if they do not understand the importance of such
procedures (Jackson, 2008). The following research questions have prompted the researchers
to conduct the study on restaurant’s food safety and hygiene (Phillips et al., 2006):

 Does the restaurant practice a proper food temperature control?

 Why hygiene practices, sanitation, and hygiene facilities are important?
 Is it a serious problem if restaurants don’t practice food safety?

3. OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to investigate the cleanliness of restaurant and fast food
restaurant in Malaysia. This study suggests several research objectives to be achieved as
follows:

 To investigate the level of cleanliness of restaurants and fast food restaurants in Shah
Alam
 To determine which one of the food premises have greater hygiene
 To raise awareness on the importance of food hygiene
 To recommend ways to improve food safety and hygiene
 4. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Results from this study will help people to be more aware on the food safety and hygiene of a
restaurant. First of all, people will know what food safety is and why it should be practiced
by every restaurant. Then, it can help restaurants to improve in the overall cleanliness of their
restaurant from how to handle the food and the cleanliness of their restaurant. Therefore,
restaurants can be more aware of their food safety and hygiene s the could make their
restaurant a comfortable, clean and safe place to eat for everyone.

5. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

There are several potential limitations in this study. Firstly, the result of this study is solely
based on only two fast food restaurants and two restaurants in Shah Alam which are
McDonalds, KFC, Restoran Hakim and Pak Li Kopitiam. Second, our observation might not
be really accurate since it will be conducted for only an hour in each restaurant. Lastly, this
study might not have consistent answers as different people have different opinions in food
hygiene.

6. PREVIOUS STUDIES

Kandampully (2007) states that food is essential to sustain life and it is also an
important business component in the hospitality industry. Oxford Dictionary defines fast food
restaurant as easily prepared processed food in restaurants as a quick meal or to be taken
away. Whereas restaurant is defined as a place where people pay to sit and eat meals that are
cooked and served on the premises.

Food hygiene and safety rules in Malaysia falls under the Food Hygiene Regulations
2009. The objectives of these regulations is to ensure food premises are hygienic, food
handlers maintain personal hygiene and equipment and appliances used are clean and
suitable. Noor-Azira (2012) conducted a study among 64 food handlers from various food
premises in Kuala Pilah. She has found out that food handlers in Kuala Pilah, Malaysia have
great knowledge and attitude, and good practices toward food hygiene. However, even
though the knowledge of food hygiene among food handlers were satisfactory, some hygiene
aspects still need to be emphasized.

There are several researches that are conducted locally to investigate the food hygiene
and safety of different kinds of restaurants. Faridah Hanim (2015) has found out that most
mobile food handlers in Shah Alam are aware of food safety and hygiene. Mazni Saad (2013)
has found out that food handlers at Malaysian Government Institutions Training Centers
scored between 3.24 to 5.73 mean scores for hygiene which indicated that good hygiene have
been practiced in the institutions.

Mohammad Halim Jeinie (2016) researched of Food Safety and Hygiene Practice
(FSHP) among hotels in Malaysia and found positive feedback on the implications of FSHP
in the hotel restaurants. Besides, an article written by Jarod Lim for The Star (2017) titled
“No compromise on food safety” depicts McDonald’s discipline towards food safety. The
staffs are required to wash their hands every hour with anti-microbial hand wash to ensure
that they do not contaminate the food during the preparation process.

Although there have been a lot of researches conducted on food hygiene and safety
rules in various food premises in Malaysia, there have yet to be a research dedicated on
comparing the food hygiene and safety practice between fast food restaurants and non-fast
food restaurants. This study hopefully would be able to distinguish which type of restaurant
possess a greater food hygiene and safety practice.

7. METHODOLOGY

This study will be conducted at fast food restaurants and restaurants that are located in Shah
Alam. The subjects of this study will be 50 customers and restaurant owners of McDonalds,
KFC, Restoran Hakim and Pak Li Kopitiam. In this study, the customers’ as well as the
restaurant owners’ scores will be measured by giving them questionnaires consisting of 5-
point Likert-type scales ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” and also
questions in a closed-ended format. This method was designed to measure the food hygiene
for example the handling of food, the preparing, packaging and serving of food, exposure or
display of food. The first part of the questionnaire is specifically targeted for the customers.
The second part of the questionnaire is targeted for the restaurant owners where they are
required to choose an answer from multiple options provided. Other than that, an observation
will also be conducted at the respective restaurants to have a better understanding and results
to complete this study. Lastly, this study will be conducted in a period of a month, between
April 2018 and May 2018.

8. REFERENCES

Shaed, H. M. (2017). Review on price, service quality and customer loyalty in fast food
restaurant. Terengganu, Malaysia: Faculty of Hotel and Tourism Management Universiti
Teknologi MARA.

Lauren Dundes, T. S. (2008). Food Safety in Fast Food Restaurants.

Mohd Rizaimy Shaharuding, S. W. (2011). Food Quality Attributes Among Malaysia's Fast
Food Customers.

The Star Online. (2017). Fast food restaurant ordered to close for two weeks due to poor
hygiene.

Faridah Hanim Ismail, C. T. Food Safety Knowledege and Personal Hygiene Practices
amongst Mobile Food Handlers. Shah Alam, Selangor: Faculty of Hotel & Tourism
Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).

Mohammad Halim Jeinie, M. S. Food Safety and Hygiene Practice among Hotel in
Malaysia: Qualitative Approach.

Lim, J. No compromise on food safety. The Star Online.