Pilot Educational Intervention to Acquire Good Food Safety Practices at Home in Guayaquil-Ecuador

Abstract

Visualize the effectiveness of educational interventions to acquire good food safety practices at home for preparing nutritious and safe food. The relationship of food safety practices with nutritional status and foodborne illness is underestimated at home. The ignorance of adequate and efficient practices of handling and hygiene of food increases this problem. The aim of this pilot study was to design an educational intervention for the inclusion of good food safety practices at home, through the data obtained from a knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) survey applied to a sample population of Guayaquil city. Eighty-three people (≥ 18 years old), reached by a snowball sampling method, accepted through informed consent to be part of the study. The KAP survey was applied at the beginning of the study and after the educational intervention. The KAP survey included 29 questions about personal information, food safety, personal hygiene, water and sanitation, and educational intervention preferences. During the educational intervention, infographics, interactive images, and short videos addressing the gaps of KAP were delivered via personal e-mail and posted on an Instagram account named “INAH”. Paired Student’s t-test was used to compare the before and after the educational intervention considering significant a p-value< 0.05 using the RStudio software. After the educational intervention, significant improvements in knowledge and practices were observed (p= 5.17e-12 and p< 2.20e-16, respectively). The highlights acquired after educational intervention were correct knowledge of key moments for hand washing and the correct practice for raw poultry handling (p= 0.02 and p= 7.97e-14, respectively). The educational intervention is effective to improve knowledge and practices toward food safety practices at home.