Research Article
Abdelrazig A, Mustafa K, Mo
Abstract
Introduction: The principle of food hygiene implies that there should be minimal handling of food items. Food handlers are thus expected to observe proper hygiene and sanitation methods as the chances of food contamination largely depend on their health status and hygiene practices. Objective: This study was conducted to investigate hygienic practices of food handlers in restaurants of Alnohod locality market-2017. Research methodology: This was community based cross sectional study which covered 34 restaurants and 40 food handlers (cookers) with 100% response rate. The data were collected in October 2016, by using standardized administrated questionnaire composed of 36 close-ended questions. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20. Results: The level of cooking hygienic practices among 40 food handlers, 33.21% of them were good, 47.57% poor and 27.71% bad) was reported. However, regarding personal hygiene practices, neither training in personal hygiene among the study workers has been noticed nor usage of hand gloves. Statistically significant differences were observed by gender, education with personal hygiene practices in terms of; having protective personal clothing (P-value=0.000), having medical fitness card (P-value=0.000) and tobacco consumption (P-value=0.026). Conclusion: The study identified that the cooking and personal hygienic practices were poor among food handlers. Basic training in personal, cooking and food hygiene is needed for food handlers. This is to ensure that they follow the required rules for proper hygiene and sanitation.