KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE OF FOOD HYGIENE AMONG FOOD VENDORS IN EVANGEL UNIVERSITY AKAEZE, EBONYI STATE.

Student: Joy Chimerenkeoma Ukaonye
Supervisor: Mrs Onyekachi Okpata
HOD: Prof Patricia Okpala
Department of Nursing Science
Health Sciences
Evangel University, Akaeze, Ebonyi State

Abstract

Food hygiene practices is a subject of wide scope and it is a broad term used to describe the preservation and preparation of foods in a manner that ensures the food is safe for human consumption. Food hygiene deals with the prevention of contamination of food stuffs at all stages of production, collection, transportation, storage, preparation, sale and consumption. This study was carried out to assess the knowledge and practice of food hygiene among food vendors in Evangel University Akaeze, Ebonyi State. The objectives were: to assess the knowledge of food hygiene among food vendors, to assessl the practice towards food hygiene among food vendors even while running their businesses in Evangel University Akaeze, and to identify the sources of water supply to food vendors. The research study used a Cross-sectional Nonexperimental descriptive survey using quantitative method of data collection. The population of study was thirty (30) food vendors in Evangel University Akaeze, Ebonyi State. The instrument used for the collection of data for the study was structured questionnaire and the data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentage. Findings of the study reveals that about 82% of food vendors in Evangel University Akaeze has good knowledge of food hygiene while 18% does not. 54% of food vendors has good practice towards food hygiene even while running their businesses while 46% does not and 93.3% of food vendors uses tap water to prepare food and wash plates while 6.7% does not. The study showed that most food vendors had good knowledge of food hygiene, their practice of food hygiene was quite good and their sources of cooking water was more of well water than other sources. It is therefore recommended that health education should be done to the food vendors, training of food vendors about good practices of food hygiene, inspection of food should be done by the management of Evangel University Akaeze.

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