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Essential food hygiene certificate examination: examination papers reviewed
Journal of the Royal Society of Health
|August 1, 1994
Summary
A review of 1000 Essential Food Hygiene exam papers found a slight decrease in pass rates after new exam changes. Most candidates demonstrated understanding of temperature control, though a new requirement caused some failures.
Area of Science:
- Food Safety
- Occupational Health Education
Background:
- Introduction of redesigned Essential Food Hygiene course and examination papers on January 1, 1994.
- Previous examination papers were in use throughout 1993.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the impact of the redesigned Essential Food Hygiene course and new examination papers.
- To evaluate candidate performance and identify areas of success or difficulty.
Main Methods:
- Review of 1000 consecutive Essential Food Hygiene examination papers processed on April 6-7, 1994.
- Comparison of pass rates with the previous year's data.
Main Results:
- The pass rate for the reviewed sample was 96.7%, a decrease from 99.2% in 1993.
- Eighteen candidates failed despite achieving 70% due to incorrectly answering one of two mandatory temperature control questions.
- The majority of Tutors and candidates achieved high examination success, particularly in understanding temperature control concepts.
Conclusions:
- The redesigned course and examination generally achieved success, with most candidates understanding key concepts like temperature control.
- A minority of candidates experienced difficulties, with a significant portion of failures concentrated in a few courses.
- The new requirement for correctly answering both temperature control questions represented a major change impacting pass rates.
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Step 2:
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