Abstract:
This study was carried out in Khartoum state (Khartoum, Omdurman and
Bahari) to assess food safety knowledge and practice in the household kitchens and
to assess whether they complie with the 5 keys to safer food recommended by
world health organization and to know some diseases temporarily that prevent
women from cooking food.
The data collected from 90 women by conducting questionnaire. The participants
were randomly underwent a questionnaire-based interview at their home, 96.7% of
participants had adequate knowledge regarding food contamination ,87.8% Keep
packages of raw meat and poultry separate from other foods during shopping and
90.9 % from participates applied key 1( keeping clean).
Data showed that there was an insufficient amount of knowledge regarding applied
cooking thoroughly (key 3) and keeping food at safe temperatures (key4) in many
families, about 65.6% of participants cooking thoroughly and 62.4 % of them keep
food at safe temperatures. In univariate analysis, a significant association under
significant level of p-value < 0.05: where it recorded highly association observed
between level of education and the age ( p-value) = 0.000 ). Many cases occurred
from food-borne diseases mainly due to mistakes during both food preparation and
storage. The findings confirmed that the home environment play an important role
for the spread of pathogens responsible for foodborne diseases.
In conclusion in order to adopt good hygiene practices in the home setting,
continued education of consumers about food safety issues should be conducted.
Consumers should use the Five Keys to Safer Food behavioral methodology. Food
safety education should be intensified to women so as to ensure that Information
is put into the daily life practices. The five keys to food safety must also be
introduced into the curriculum to raise people awareness regarding food safety in
order to reduce food borne diseases.
