Abstract:
This study intends to provide answers to the knowledge and practices of using
home refrigerator by households in Khartoum state(Khartoum, Omdurman and
Khartoum North (Bahari). The data collected from 90 households by conducting
questionnaire . The study revealed that 95.6% of households knew that refrigerator
was important equipment , but 7.8% of them lacked and /or didn't applying
knowledge about some practices such as recommended the best practice
guidelines in relation to monitor refrigerator temperature within the recommended
(safe) range (0-5°C). Whereas most of the respondents had the knowledge about
different parts related to refrigerator such as 83.3% of the participant knew the
important of cleaning refrigerator weekly . Regarding the part of food borne
illness and the symptoms , the study indicated that most of the participated people
had adequate knowledge and the awareness was increased regarding most of the
food –borne illness , but 36 of the participants (39.9% ) were unable to define food
borne - diseases and considered that these diseases were caused by ingestion of
spoiled or expired food or by infection . On the other hand the findings of the
study showed that the people had low information about other practices dealing
with refrigerator for example 58.9% of the participants were stored hot foods in
refrigerator after cooling it at room temperature, while only 10% knew that it must
be rapidly chilled in an ice or cold water bath before refrigerating. The study
recommended that health education should be held in the communities for people
about prevention of food, more practices and information are needed to know
more about food borne- diseases , more practice should be done for people to
raise their awareness about the importance of using refrigerators in home
correctly and further studies of consumer’s knowledge and practice in relation to
safe refrigerator should be carried out.
