THE ROLE IN SOCIETY OF THE DISCIPLINE "FUNDAMENTALS OF SANITATION AND HYGIENE AT PUBLIC CATERING ENTERPRISES"

This article examines the social role of the discipline “Fundamentals of Sanitation and Hygiene at Public Catering Enterprises” in the system of professional education. The study proceeds from the observation that eating food prepared outside the home is an act of trust the consumer cannot verify, so that the safety of the meal depends entirely upon the internalised routines of those who prepare it. The author substantiates six social functions of the discipline — the preventive, economic, trust-forming, normative-legal, cultural-value and ecological functions — and identifies the invisibility paradox as the principal obstacle to their realisation: effective hygiene produces non-events, so that the value of the discipline becomes perceptible only when it fails. The polemic between P. Slovic and C. Sunstein concerning the status of lay risk perception is subjected to critical examination, and it is shown that the transition from a compliance-based to a culture-based conception of food safety requires the discipline to address perception and motivation rather than normative knowledge alone.