Introduction: Foodborne diseases are public health concern. For proper hygiene behaviour food handlers must have knowledge about basic hygiene procedures and implement those skills in their work and for this a proper education, training and motivation is required. Nudge tools in food industry are not well researched, but they could have important impact on improvement of hygienic behaviour of employees. Purpose: Evaluation of hygienic behaviour of food handlers in selected kitchens. Design artificially produced nudge tool and investigate impact of nudge tools on behavioural change of food handlers. Methods: Methods were literature review, condition determination among food handlers during preparation of food and preparation of observation criteria for semi-disguised observation, design of visual nudge tool with short text. The sample is made of 11 employees in two kitchens of educational establishment. Semi-disguised observation was implemented in five stages. Results were analysed in Excel computer software and are display as compliance (%) of hygienic behaviour. Results: In the first stage (without nudging) the lowest compliance was detected at handwashing technique (28 %) and frequency (53 %). Compliance of personal tidiness and work clothes was 90 % or more in all stages of observation. Compliance of handwashing technique increased upon using nudge tools; the greatest improvement was achieved by using combination of citrus sense and text to 38 %. Compliance of handwashing technique was different in kitchen A and kitchen B, in kitchen A it was 16 % in first stage and has decreased during the observation, in kitchen B it was 40 % and has increased during the observation. Compliance of preventing contact of hands with ready-made food was 70 % in first stage. When we used observing eyes or combination of citrus sense and text compliance of preventing hand contact with ready-made foods was about 65 %. In fourth stage the compliance of preventing contact with ready-made food was 79 %. Discussion and conclusion: Nudge tools had an effect on hygienic behaviour of employees in observed kitchens, but efficiency of different nudge tools was not the same. The efficiency of nudge tools is, besides the choice of proper nudge tool, also dependent on other factors (equipment, space, employees).
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