ATTITUDES AND TRAINING AS DETERMINANTS OF FOOD SAFETY PRACTICES AMONG FOOD HANDLERS IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Abstract

Food safety practices are associated with several factors such as attitude, training
and knowledge among food handlers. The study was therefore conducted to
investigate attitudes and training as determinants of food safety practices among food
handlers in tertiary institutions in Southwest Nigeria. The study employed descriptive
survey research design. The respondents for the study comprised 480 samples
selected through a multi-stage sampling procedure. Data for the study were collected
with the aid of self-designed structured and validated questionnaire. The
questionnaire was subjected to test re-test reliability procedures and a correlation
coefficient of 0.79 was obtained which was deemed high. Data for the study were
analysed with the aid of frequency count, simple percentage and regression model.
Findings showed that food handlers in the study area had positive attitudes towards
safe food handling with mean score 3.75±1.01 and majority (55.1%) of the food
handlers had received trainings in major food safe food handling practices. Findings
also revealed that attitudes (p<0.05) and training (p<0.05) were significant
determinants of food safety practices in the study area. The study concludes that food
handlers’ attitude and trainings had positive and significant effect on food safety
practices in the study area. The study recommends that tertiary institutions should
continue to encourage food handlers towards developing positive attitude towards
food safety as well as put training programs in place for them.