Appraisal Of Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors In University Of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria

Abstract

Food vendors with poor knowledge and practice of food hygiene are potential source of food contamination and food borne diseases in institutions of learning in developing countries. The study was conducted to appraise the knowledge and practice of food hygiene among food vendors in the University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria using a cross - sectional descriptive survey as the research design. A total of sixty – seven food vendors were purposely recruited for the study.  Researcher’s developed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Collated data were sorted, coded, and analysed with SPSS software. The results were described using frequency counts and percentages. Findings from the study indicated that majority of the respondents 57 (85.1%) had adequate knowledge of food hygiene and the same percentage also engaged in good food hygienic practices. The result also revealed that, there was a statistically significant relationship between knowledge and practice of food hygiene (=28.134; p<0.05).  Thus, the researchers suggested continuous education of food vendors on the need to maintain hygiene practices during preparation and handling of food to safeguard the health of the students.