Knowledge and misconceptions regarding hand washing as perceived by the food handlers in school food service operations

Abstract

The rising issue of food borne diseases due to unhygienic food preparation is burgeoning in our society. The risk of food contamination largely depends on the hygiene practices of food handlers. However, previous studies had shown that hand hygiene practices is often neglected by the food handlers. This study sought to evaluate the perceived hand washing knowledge among food handlers with reference to the proper hand washing procedure as well as the knowledge on appropriate times to wash hands. The study sample is comprised of 146 food handlers who were selected by means of random cluster sampling. The questionnaire used was adapted from previous studies on hand washing. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that hand washing knowledge scores among food handlers were high where 84.9% respondents had good knowledge with score ≥ 70%, 14.4% respondents had satisfactory knowledge with score range of 50 to 69%. Only one respondent had a poor knowledge of hand washing (score below 50%). However, outcome from the study also indicated that there are some misconceptions concerning proper hand washing practices and appropriate times to wash hands. Thus, leads to a conclusion that although food handlers had knowledge of how and when to wash hands, some of them shows that they had a misconception of a certain facts on hand washing.