Food Hygiene Knowledge, Practice and Safety Training Intervention among Food Handlers in Abakaliki, Nigeria

Background: Food hygiene and safety are significant public health issues in both developed and developing nations. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of training on knowledge and practice of food hygiene and safety among food handlers in restaurants in Abakaliki, Nigeria.

Methodology: This study was quasi-experimental in design. The intervention and control groups were selected by simple random sampling method. A total of 170 food handlers were recruited into this study. The study phases were a baseline survey in both groups, a training programme in the intervention group and post-intervention survey in both groups. Statistical package for social sciences (IBM-SPSS) version 20 was used for data analysis.

Results: After the intervention, the proportion of respondents who had very good knowledge of food hygiene and safety increased significantly by 46.9% in the intervention group (p<0.01). A slight increase (1.1%) was observed in the control group but this was not significant (p = 0.40). The proportion of food handlers in the intervention group who had very good practice of food hygiene and safety also increased significantly by 28.4% (p<0.01). However, in the control group, there was no increase in the proportion of food handlers who had very good practice.

Conclusion: Training significantly increased the knowledge and practice of food hygiene and safety among food handlers. Periodic training should be provided for the food handlers. Further research is recommended to assess sustained changes in practice of food hygiene and safety over time.