Linkage between Food Hygiene Knowledge and Practices among Food Handlers in Restaurants and Hotels in Thika, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to establish the linkage between food hygiene knowledge and practice among food handlers’ in restaurants and hotels in Thika, Kenya. A cross sectional survey design was adopted for the study. A sample size of 216 food handlers were randomly sampled from a target population of 470 food handlers. The researcher administered questionnaires to the sampled population. The questionnaires for collecting data were validated through a pretest study while Cronbach‟ s Alpha test was done to test reliability of the questionnaire. A total of 184 questionnaires were found fit and complete for data analysis. Coded responses were analyzed quantitatively using means, percentages, frequency distributions and standard deviations. Further test of correlation was done to test the linkage between the variables. Generally, the food handler’s knowledge was high with a mean percentage score of positive answers of (81.1%±7.3%). With regards to attitudes the food handlers exhibited positive attitude towards food hygiene with an overall mean of 3.6±0.5 out total 5. Overall, the food handlers had good practices in food hygiene with a mean percentage score of 86.3%±8.3%. However, a considerable number of food handlers (27.5%) exhibited unhygienic food practices. The Pearson correlation was performed to find the linkage between food hygiene knowledge and food hygiene practices. The results revealed a positive relationship was established between food hygiene knowledge (r= 0.534) and food hygiene practices p< 0.05. The public health authorities should do thorough checks to ensure that all food handlers hold valid …