Exploring kitchen accidents and safety strategies in Sri Lanka’s 3-star hotels

Kitchen accidents pose a critical risk within the hotel industry, especially in high-star-rated establishments. Strategic health and safety management is crucial to improving hotel employees’ health and safety. This study uniquely focused on identifying common kitchen accidents and their causes through literature and barriers to enhancing kitchen safety among staff and strategic approaches to minimise risks in Sri Lanka’s 3-star hotels through 10 semi-structured interviews with managerial-level personnel. This study area is underexplored in previous literature. Findings revealed persistent kitchen safety issues among kitchen staff, encompassing various Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) concerns such as slips, falls, cuts, burns, eye injuries, and musculoskeletal discomfort. The causes of these OHS issues were classified into four categories: work environment-related, people-related, material and equipment-related, and management procedures and methods-related. Barriers to enhancing kitchen safety in the Sri Lankan context were identified under four main categories: economic, legal, social, and technical. This study contributes to the field by proposing targeted strategies to enhance kitchen safety in Sri Lanka’s 3-star hotels, addressing these identified causes. Key strategic measures include training and awareness, technology adoption, adequate supervision, managerial controls, standards, and regular auditing/reviewing. By focusing on a specific and underrepresented segment of the hotel industry, this research provides valuable insights and practical recommendations to improve kitchen safety.