"KAP on Microbial Contamination and Food Safety of Packed Food Products among Working Young Adults "

Abstract

Access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health. Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, parasites and other chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases, ranging from diarrhoea to cancers. It creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, elderly and the patients. Food can be contaminated at any time during harvesting, transport, processing and storage. Consumer awareness about food safety and practice of good hygiene, handling and storage of packed food also plays a major role in bringing safe food to the plate. Therefore, the present study aimed to know the knowledge, attitude and practice of consumers on microbial contamination and food safety of packed food products in the market among working young adults. The data was collected from 91 participants of age group between 18 to 30 years of both genders with varied occupation from different geographical areas of the country to examine their attitude and awareness on microbial contamination from packed food items. The results revealed that majority of the subjects that is, 86.8% were aware whereas, 13.2% subjects were not aware about microbial contamination from packed food items. 74.7% and 79.1% read food labels and checked for damaged products during purchasing of packed food items respectively. 89% of the consumers used food products before its expiry date. Merely 35.2% followed first-in first-out rule on regular basis. 28.6% of the subjects stored milk and meat in the same compartment of refrigerator.79.1% practiced closing lids of food items while storing in the refrigerator, 94.5% cleaned packaged whole cereals, pulses and seeds before cooking or preparing dishes and 70.3% immediately transferred food items from package to tight lid containers after purchasing from the market or using once.