Food Safety Awareness and Practices of Food Handlers in Cafes and Restaurants of Ambo, Guder and Ginchi Towns of West Shoa Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Good food safety awareness and practices play a great role for handlers in food production, and to guarantee foods served are safe for consumption. Aware or unintended contamination of such food places consumers at risk of suffering from food-borne infections. As a result the study was carried out to document the food safety awareness, food safety practices and attitudes of the manager in food businesses in Ambo, Guder and Ginchi towns of West Shoa of Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia. The study targeted 120 food handlers and managers in the cafes and restaurants. The study involved an interview, followed by visual observation of the food handlers, equipment, homes and environment of the café and restaurants for confirmation. SPSS version 20 and descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the survey data collected from respondents. Majority of respondents were between the ages of 16 - 26years (54.2%) with tertiary or post-secondary education. The study revealed that food safety awareness and attitudes of the managers were satisfactory; however its practice was sensational. The study concluded that the food safety awareness, food safety practices and attitudes of the manager did not result an efficient food safety practices. It is recommended that training of food handlers for the control of environmental and technical sources of contamination is mandatory to secure food safety.

Keywords: Awareness; Practices; Attitudes; Food handlers; Food safety

DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/10-13-04

Publication date:July 31^st 2020