Food Safety Knowledge Attitude and Practice among Households in Khartoum, State

Abstract

This study was conducted to assess the level of the knowledge, attitude and practice of food safety among the households in Khartoum state. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted , and administration of questionnaire in Khartoum state(Khartoum Khartoum North and Omdurman, by using simple random sampling, Data was collected by using face to face interview structured questionnaire comprise of 4 sections; ,Socio-demographic Characteristics, Knowledge of food safety, Attitude towards food safety , Practice on food safety.a total of 345of households were participant in this questionnaire .Data analyzed by(chi square) . The results: the respondents were females, aged between 18-80 years, among which 74% were married and 26% were single. About the education level of the householdswas 92.8% of the women were literate. The majority of the women were knowledgeable about food safety practice. However, they have good knowledge on personal hygiene 98.3%and moderate knowledge on cross contamination 69.6% contrary their knowledge on food storage and preservation temperatures was poor with only 55.9 %. Respondents showed positive attitudes. So it’s seem to be satisfying, except on issues related to implementation of cooling principle, and another negative attitude which is cross contamination. In assessing the food safety practices of the respondents, they do not translate all this knowledge to safety practices, so unsafe food practices are still frequently applied during the preparation of food in the domestic environment. There was significant association between socio-demographic profile and food handling practices (P value< 0.01). In conclusion the women had satisfactory knowledge in the areas of food safety, general and personal hygiene, cleaning procedures. However, this was not translated into strict food hygiene practices.