Abstract:

Background: Food safety is a public health concern and it remains a critical issue with outbreak of food- borne illness resulting in substantial costs to individuals, the community health systems, the food industry and to the economy in general. College students are one of the most at- risk population groups due to their unsafe behavior in food consumption. Knowledge and practices of food safety is very important among students since they are also consumers.

Methods: This study is a cross- sectional study to investigate food safety knowledge and practices of senior secondary school, Ile –Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. A pre-tested 27- item, purpose designed, self- administered questionnaires were used to collect information on knowledge and practices of the respondents on food safety. Data were collated and analyzed based on descriptive and inferential study design.

Results: The result showed that the total percentages of respondents with good level of food safety knowledge is 75.8% (310) with only 24.2% (99) respondents having poor food safety knowledge level as majority of the respondents 65.8%(269) also have high level of food safety practices with only 34.2% (140) of them having low practices on food safety. In addition, the result showed significant association between mothers’ educational level and food safety knowledge scores and significant association between food safety practice scores and age, gender, class and household composition of the senior secondary school students (p <0.05). The results also showed no significant correlation between food safety knowledge and practices of the students (p <0.05).

Conclusion: Senior secondary school students of Ambassadors College, Ile- Ife have good food safety knowledge and high food safety practices.

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