Knowledge on Food Safety Among Women in a Community

Abstract

Introduction: Safe food is necessary for good and healthy living. Consumption of unsafe food can cause number of foodborne diseases which mainly affects infants, young children, elderly and ill people. Food prepared and eaten at home is also a major source of foodborne diseases. In many households, often women prepare meals for family members. To protect their family’s health and well-being, it is important for women to have basic knowledge of food safety. This study was  carried out with the aim of assessing knowledge on food safety among women in a community.

Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study was  conducted among 97 women in a community. Face to face interview schedule was used to collect data by using self-developed structured questionnaire. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS version 26.

Result: More than half (55.7%) of the respondents had adequate knowledge while less than half (44.3%) of the respondents had inadequate knowledge on food safety. There was statistically significant association between level of knowledge on food safety with age (p=0.035) and educational status (p=0.002).

Conclusion: More than half of the respondents had adequate knowledge on meaning, importance and consequences of food safety. Despite of this, there is inadequate level of knowledge regarding measures of food safety such as separation of food, cooking of food and storage of food. Moreover, this study showed that there was statistically significant association between level of knowledge on food safety with age and educational status.