Food Safety Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices among Food Handlers in the School Feeding Program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Summary

This cross-sectional study of 632 food handlers in Addis Ababa's school feeding program found that whilst 85.8% possessed adequate food safety knowledge and 79.6% held positive attitudes, only 72.3% demonstrated satisfactory practices. Satisfactory practice was significantly associated with separate storage of raw and ready-to-eat foods, water availability, handwashing facilities, and positive attitudes; knowledge alone showed weak correlation with practice. The findings suggest that high training coverage does not automatically translate to consistent compliance, and that infrastructure, supervision and monitoring are critical complements to training.

Regional applicability

This study from Ethiopia addresses food safety in institutional feeding programmes, a policy area relevant to United Kingdom school meal provision and food service standards. Whilst the specific context differs, the finding that training coverage exceeds actual practice compliance is applicable to UK settings and suggests UK programmes should prioritise infrastructure, supervision and monitoring alongside worker education.

Key measures

Percentage with adequate food safety knowledge (85.8%), positive attitudes (79.6%), and satisfactory practices (72.3%); Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between knowledge, attitudes and practices; adjusted odds ratios for factors associated with satisfactory practice; previous food safety training coverage (96%)

Outcomes reported

The study assessed food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices among 632 food handlers in Addis Ababa's school feeding program, identifying factors associated with satisfactory food safety practices. Cross-sectional analysis examined correlations between knowledge, attitudes, and practices, and logistic regression identified infrastructure and procedural factors predicting compliance.

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