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Assessment of the Sanitary Conditions of Catering Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria

Received: 25 July 2015     Accepted: 6 August 2015     Published: 19 August 2015
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Abstract

Background: Every institution which provides food for a large group of consumers has the responsibility to keep the safety and wholesomeness of food otherwise it may result outbreaks of food borne illness. The most identified contributing factors of food borne illness in mass catering establishments were cross contamination, dirty work environment and poor personal hygiene practice by food handlers. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the sanitary conditions of catering establishments and food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers in Addis Ababa University students’ cafeterias. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January, 2014 to May, 2014. A total of 12 student catering establishments from 7 campuses were studied for sanitary condition of premises and a total of 302 food handlers were assessed for knowledge and practice statuses. For data collection questionnaires and appropriate checklists were used. Bacteriological examination was made from all catering premises following appropriate standard procedures. The data was entered by using EPI INFO version 3.5.1 and cleaned before transferring to SPSS version 17 statistical packages which was used for data management and analysis. Results: Majority, 212(70.2%), of food handlers were females and their median age were 29. Among the 302 subjects, 197 (65.2%) of them had food hygiene training. All, 302 (100%), of food handlers were literate and 283 (93.7%) of them had adequate knowledge of food borne diseases. Twelve of premises had a clean wall and ceiling in their kitchen and dining rooms. Similarly all premises had openable window, adequate light and adequate ventilation. E. coli were not identified at all and in 1 (2.8%) of swabbed utensils S. aureus were identified. Practice scores revealed that 52.3% of food handlers had a poor food handling practice. Conclusion: This study revealed that the repair and sanitary conditions of premises were in a good condition. Nearly half of food handlers had a poor food handling practice. Provision of training and basic sanitary facilities by management is recommended

Published in Science Journal of Public Health (Volume 3, Issue 5)
DOI 10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30
Page(s) 733-743
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2015. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Sanitary Condition, Food Handlers, Food Safety, Food Handling Practices

References
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  • APA Style

    Asrat Meleko, Andualem Henok, Worku Tefera, Tafesse Lamaro. (2015). Assessment of the Sanitary Conditions of Catering Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria. Science Journal of Public Health, 3(5), 733-743. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30

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    ACS Style

    Asrat Meleko; Andualem Henok; Worku Tefera; Tafesse Lamaro. Assessment of the Sanitary Conditions of Catering Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria. Sci. J. Public Health 2015, 3(5), 733-743. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30

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    AMA Style

    Asrat Meleko, Andualem Henok, Worku Tefera, Tafesse Lamaro. Assessment of the Sanitary Conditions of Catering Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria. Sci J Public Health. 2015;3(5):733-743. doi: 10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30

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  • @article{10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30,
      author = {Asrat Meleko and Andualem Henok and Worku Tefera and Tafesse Lamaro},
      title = {Assessment of the Sanitary Conditions of Catering Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria},
      journal = {Science Journal of Public Health},
      volume = {3},
      number = {5},
      pages = {733-743},
      doi = {10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.sjph.20150305.30},
      abstract = {Background: Every institution which provides food for a large group of consumers has the responsibility to keep the safety and wholesomeness of food otherwise it may result outbreaks of food borne illness. The most identified contributing factors of food borne illness in mass catering establishments were cross contamination, dirty work environment and poor personal hygiene practice by food handlers. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the sanitary conditions of catering establishments and food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers in Addis Ababa University students’ cafeterias. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January, 2014 to May, 2014. A total of 12 student catering establishments from 7 campuses were studied for sanitary condition of premises and a total of 302 food handlers were assessed for knowledge and practice statuses. For data collection questionnaires and appropriate checklists were used. Bacteriological examination was made from all catering premises following appropriate standard procedures. The data was entered by using EPI INFO version 3.5.1 and cleaned before transferring to SPSS version 17 statistical packages which was used for data management and analysis. Results: Majority, 212(70.2%), of food handlers were females and their median age were 29. Among the 302 subjects, 197 (65.2%) of them had food hygiene training. All, 302 (100%), of food handlers were literate and 283 (93.7%) of them had adequate knowledge of food borne diseases. Twelve of premises had a clean wall and ceiling in their kitchen and dining rooms. Similarly all premises had openable window, adequate light and adequate ventilation. E. coli were not identified at all and in 1 (2.8%) of swabbed utensils S. aureus were identified. Practice scores revealed that 52.3% of food handlers had a poor food handling practice. Conclusion: This study revealed that the repair and sanitary conditions of premises were in a good condition. Nearly half of food handlers had a poor food handling practice. Provision of training and basic sanitary facilities by management is recommended},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Assessment of the Sanitary Conditions of Catering Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria
    AU  - Asrat Meleko
    AU  - Andualem Henok
    AU  - Worku Tefera
    AU  - Tafesse Lamaro
    Y1  - 2015/08/19
    PY  - 2015
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30
    DO  - 10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30
    T2  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JF  - Science Journal of Public Health
    JO  - Science Journal of Public Health
    SP  - 733
    EP  - 743
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7950
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.sjph.20150305.30
    AB  - Background: Every institution which provides food for a large group of consumers has the responsibility to keep the safety and wholesomeness of food otherwise it may result outbreaks of food borne illness. The most identified contributing factors of food borne illness in mass catering establishments were cross contamination, dirty work environment and poor personal hygiene practice by food handlers. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the sanitary conditions of catering establishments and food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers in Addis Ababa University students’ cafeterias. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from January, 2014 to May, 2014. A total of 12 student catering establishments from 7 campuses were studied for sanitary condition of premises and a total of 302 food handlers were assessed for knowledge and practice statuses. For data collection questionnaires and appropriate checklists were used. Bacteriological examination was made from all catering premises following appropriate standard procedures. The data was entered by using EPI INFO version 3.5.1 and cleaned before transferring to SPSS version 17 statistical packages which was used for data management and analysis. Results: Majority, 212(70.2%), of food handlers were females and their median age were 29. Among the 302 subjects, 197 (65.2%) of them had food hygiene training. All, 302 (100%), of food handlers were literate and 283 (93.7%) of them had adequate knowledge of food borne diseases. Twelve of premises had a clean wall and ceiling in their kitchen and dining rooms. Similarly all premises had openable window, adequate light and adequate ventilation. E. coli were not identified at all and in 1 (2.8%) of swabbed utensils S. aureus were identified. Practice scores revealed that 52.3% of food handlers had a poor food handling practice. Conclusion: This study revealed that the repair and sanitary conditions of premises were in a good condition. Nearly half of food handlers had a poor food handling practice. Provision of training and basic sanitary facilities by management is recommended
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 5
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Public Health, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan, Ethiopia

  • Department of Public Health, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan, Ethiopia

  • School of Public Health Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

  • Department of Nursing, Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan, Ethiopia

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