An assessment of food hygiene practices among food handlers in restaurants in Kabwe Urban District

Abstract

Kabwe district is one of the six (6) Districts of Central Province and a provincial headquarter. It is 139km from the capital city Lusaka with an area of 1,577km2 surrounded by Kapiri-Mposhi and Chibombo. It is a transit town with a huge traffic of people moving through the Great North Road to the Copperbelt from Lusaka and vice versa. The district in 2008 had a projected population of 183,954 inhabitants with a growth rate of 1.8% (KDMT, 2008). Recently the general population has increased and this has lead to increase in the demand of wide variety of food stuffs which include those that are often eaten away from homes. This demand has lead to an increase in the establishment of many eating places such as hotel, lodges, restaurants and guest houses.The general objective of the study was to assess food hygiene practices among food handlers in restaurants in Kabwe urban district. Specifically the study was conducted to establish characteristics of food handlers working selected restaurants, to assess the level of knowledge regarding food hygiene practices among food handlerst and to assess food hygiene practices among food handlers in restaurants in Kabwe district. The study site was Kabwe Urban district with a sample size was 251. The majority (76%) were female. 58% of respondents attained secondary level of education. In general, regardless of the education level, there were more female food handlers working in restaurants than male in all age groups. The study revealed that 74.1% were not trained in any food hygiene programme while 25.9% were trained. 100% of food handlers washed hands before handling food. 96% washed with soap while 6% just washed with plain water. 86% of food handlers confirmed that they covered their hair when working in the restaurants while 14 % did not cover their hair. The study revealed that there was an association between education and level of knowledge in food hygiene. Furthermore, the study revealed that food handlers that were very knowledgeable fell among those whose level of education was secondary school. And within this category, those without any form of education were the least knowledgeable. The association between level of knowledge and food hygiene practices was significant at 5% level of confidence with P-value=0.001. In conclusion, this study revealed that there was an association between level of knowledge and hygiene practices among food handlers. It was further, concluded that the level of knowledge is high among food handlers in Kabwe Urban district and that the majority of these handlers had good hygiene practices