Urban households’ food safety knowledge and behaviour: Choice of food markets and cooking practices

Abstract

Food safety is a public health issue and a shared responsibility of everyone. Traditional food markets can be high-risk locations for the spread of foodborne diseases, especially in developing countries. The focus has been to improve institutional food handlers' food safety knowledge and behaviour. However, the household is the last barrier to preventing the transmission of foodborne diseases. Households' knowledge and proper behaviour towards food safety in the home can improve their protection against foodborne diseases. Using household data from the NOURICITY project on urban households in Ghana, the study sought to answer the primary research questions, including; the main factors that influence urban households' choice of food markets and the effect of household food safety knowledge and wealth status on food safety cooking practices/behaviour. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was applied to address these questions. The study results show that convenience (proximity and availability of all products at one location) is the primary consideration for choosing a food market, not food safety. Only 18% of respondents considered food safety one of their topmost priorities in choosing a market. In addition, although households are food safety knowledgeable and have a positive attitude towards food safety, neither food safety knowledge nor attitude has a statistically significant effect on food safety cooking practices/behaviour. However, household wealth status positively affects food safety cooking practices/behaviour. We conclude that households’ food safety cooking behaviour may improve when in addition to appropriate food safety knowledge, households are economically better off.