Assessment of the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Food Safety among Saudi Population in Taif
Journal Title: Biomedical Journal of Scientific & Technical Research (BJSTR) - Year 2018, Vol 8, Issue 2
Abstract
Foodborne diseases outbreaks continue to be problem indicating the failure of population to adhere to safe practices during food preparation. Thus, this study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of food safety awareness among public Saudi population. This study involved 136 persons from Taif Saudi Arabia. The food safety KAP among 136 Saudi population was assessed using a questionnaire. The study involved 54.4% females and 45.6% males, 56.6% work outside health field and 43.4% in health care field ,82.4% from urban area and 17.6% from rural area and 81% within the age group from 21-30 years old. 75.7% of the population had good attitude and practice towards health and food safety and washing hands before eating. Further population had low attitude on other related items such as unimportance of reading the instruction label on the canned food 59.5%, unimportance of checking the refrigerator temperature 77.9%, and unimportance of changing the cutting knife used between meat and vegetables cutting 66.9%. As regard knowledge, 61.8% of population had good knowledge about best temperature for bacterial growth which is between 4 to 50 °C and about 73.5% of population had good knowledge about diseases that could be transmitted through food. but only 27.2% of population had knowledge about suitable method of meat thawing. In conclusion, the suggestion of this study was that Saudi population had adequate food safety knowledge, but perceived knowledge failed to be translated into practices, therefore necessary to hold training programs through workshops or to include courses in the curriculum of ministry of health.The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there approximately 2 million cases of food poisoning occur every year globally [1], especially in developing countries. This could be due to the poor state of food safety and general hygiene in those countries [2]. More than 50% of the total food poisoning cases were attributed to improper food handling [3]. Food-borne diseases have increased over the years, and dangerously affected the health and economic well-being of many developing countries [4]. Food poisoning occurs as a result of consuming food contaminated with microorganisms or their toxins, the contamination arising from inadequate preservation methods, unhygienic handling practices, cross-contamination from food contact surfaces or from persons harboring the microorganisms in their nares and on the skin [5,6]. Unhygienic practices during food preparation, handling and storage creates the conditions that allows the proliferation and transmission of disease causing organisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites and other food-borne pathogens [7,8].
Authors and Affiliations
Ahmed Mahmoud Khalifa, Khadiga Ahmed Ismail, Farah Anjum Ansari, Hasnaa A Abouseif
Keywords
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- EP ID EP591019
- DOI 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.08.001629
- Views 148
- Downloads 0
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