Abstract:

Food hygiene includes all conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety, suitability and wholesomeness of food at all stages of the food chain. The objective of this study was to ascertain the knowledge and practice of food hygiene among food vendors in Ihiagwa, Owerri-West L.G.A. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used in this study as a quantitative research approach. 221 food vendors were selected using the stratified sampling technique. Data was collected with the use of a questionnaire and also with observations of general hygiene and cleanliness. Data was captured in Excel sheet and imported into SPSS version 20.0 for analysis. The results of this study showed that most of the food vendors 99(44.5%) were between 30-39 years of age. Females recorded 166(75%) while males had 55(25%); 183(82.8%) reported that they have not attended any food hygiene training; only 28(12.7%) of the food vendors reported that they always cover their hair while serving food; 188(85.1%) reported that their food premises have not been visited by environmental health officers, only 51(23.1%) of the food vendors said that they go for routine medical examinations and 5(2.3%) said that well water was their main source of water supply. The age of the respondents showed a significant relationship with their knowledge of food hygiene (X²=15.53 at P=0.008). The Age, gender and educational status of the respondents all showed a significant relationship with their practice of food hygiene.

Keywords: hygiene, knowledge, practice, food, vendors, ihiagwa,

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