Food safety knowledge and handling practices among household food handlers in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

A lack of food safety knowledge and practices can contribute to a higher risk of foodborne illnesses in households. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the level of food safety knowledge, and food handling practices among household food handlers (n = 984) in Bangladesh. Data were collected through a structured and validated questionnaire consisting of 26 questions divided into five subsections and 9 demographic questions. Chi-square (χ2), Manne-Whitney U, and Kruskal-Wallis H tests were used to determine the relationship between food safety knowledge and handling practice with demographic characteristics. The respondent's overall pass rate on food safety knowledge was 17.6% (knowledge scores from 0 to 26 and awarded mean score was 9.45 ± 2.98) indicating a very low level of knowledge on food safety. Particularly, they had a critically poor knowledge on food poisoning (28.4% passing rate), food handling (29.6% passing rate), and food storage (31.6% passing rate). They had poor knowledge of kitchen facilities (39.3% passing rate) and personal hygiene (45.8% passing rate). The results of the present study revealed that the food safety knowledge and handling practices varied with age, marital status, food handlers' education, the total number of family members, number of children in the household, monthly income of the family head, and place of residence (all p < 0.05). The above-highlighted results suggest that there is a great need for introducing education and training programs on food safety at the household level for food handlers in Bangladesh. Therefore, researchers, educators, food regulatory authorities, food safety experts, and the mass media collectively can play a vital role in improving their food safety knowledge and handling practices for safer food preparation.