FOOD HANDLER’S HYGIENE AND SAFETY MEASURES AMONG STREET FOOD SHOPS AND FOOD ESTABLISHMENTS: A COMMUNITY-BASED CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY
Main Article Content
Keywords
Food Handler’s Hygiene, Food Safety, Food Establishment, Hand Washing
Abstract
BACKGROUND
In Tessema AG et al study, two hundred thirteen (52.5%) of food handlers had good food handling practices. The literature on food handlers' hygiene is limited in India, particularly in regions like Anantapuramu, where studies addressing the knowledge, practices, and epidemiological impact of food borne diseases remain scarce.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
1. To study the hygiene practices of food safety among street cooked food handlers.
2. To study the determinants of food handler’s hygiene practices in food establishments.
3. To enumerate acute health related complaints among food handlers.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Epidemiological investigation-Community Based Cross-sectional study on food handler’s working in food establishments. The estimated minimum sample size is 384. Simple Random Sampling is used for data collection through pre-structured questionnaire. Data Analysis is done using tables, charts, chi-square test of significance.
RESULTS
Total sample size is 394. The mean KAP score is 24.18 (67.2%). Maximum score recorded is 36 (100%) and the minimum score is 9 (25%). KAP score proportion more than 60% is considered as good KAP score while below 60% as poor KAP score. Around 276 subjects (70.1%) had good KAP score while 118 subjects (29.9%) had poor KAP score. The determinants identified for poor food handler’s hygiene were observed as age below 25 years, male gender, low educational status, lack of formal training on food safety, low income, low job experience and poor job satisfaction among food handlers.
CONCLUSION
The knowledge and practices of food handlers in the current study were observed to be quite low. Youth-oriented formal training on Food Safety, Awareness Campaigns and provision of accessible resources for hygiene maintenance are the need of the hour.
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Dr. Niharika B
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Goverment Medical College, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Dr. Marupuri Sushma
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Goverment Medical College, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Dr. Geethanjali Ankireddy
Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Goverment Medical College, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh, India.
Dr. T. Madhu
Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Goverment Medical College, Anantapuramu, Andhra Pradesh, India.