Food Safety, Hygiene Practices and Consumer Choice of Food Vendors in Tertiary Institutions in Abia State, Nigeria (Published)
The paper the influence of food safety and hygiene practices on consumer choice of food vendors in tertiary institution in Abia State, Nigeria. Specifically, the study is to determine the standard of food safety and hygiene practices among food vendors in the study area and the influence of environment on consumer choice of food vendors in the study area. Two research objective guided the study and one hypothesis. Structured questionnaire and observational checklist were used to assess the food safety and hygiene practices among food vendors. The study population comprises of all the registered food vendors and consumers of the selected tertiary institutions in Abia State. Convenience sampling techniques was adopted for the study. A sample size of 260 registered food vendors and 196 consumers were adopted for the study. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and means were used to analyze demographic variables and research questions, while multiple regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 significant level. Findings revealed that environment, location, price, quality of food among others are some of the factors that influences consumers’ choice of food vendors. Management of tertiary instructions should sensitize, train and retrain food vendors on preparing and serving a healthy food to consumers. Disciplinary measures should be put in place to ensure strict adherence to standard food safety and hygiene practices in these institutions.
Keywords: Consumers, Hygiene, food safety, food vendor tertiary institution
Assessing the Hygienic State of Hospital Kitchens in The Sekondi – Takoradi Metropolis of Ghana (Published)
The hygienic state of the kitchen where foods are cooked as well as the food handlers have an impact on either causing food poisoning or otherwise. Thus, leading to the conduction of the study. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional survey design with the objectives of finding out food handlers’ knowledge on hygiene; assessing the personal, food and kitchen hygiene practices of food handlers in hospitals; and assessing ways in which foods are packaged and served to patient’s hospitals. Fifty (50) kitchen staff were chosen through a purposive sampling technique and structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was analyzed using frequencies, percentages, charts and tables. It was found out that the respondents understood the meaning of hygiene and could state some examples. Though most of the hospitals’ kitchen staff were found to comply with hygienic measures, a few were doing the contrary which exposes the foods they prepare to contaminations. The kitchens’ packaging and delivery of food to patients were quite hygienic. However, their means of disposing off waste left much to be desired. Finally, it was recommended that the hospitals’ authorities should increase supervision over the kitchens, organize periodic training on all aspects of hygiene and food safety for staff members of the kitchens and take stringent measures against kitchen staff members who do not comply with the appropriate hygienic regulations.
Keywords: Food Contamination. Food Safety, Hospital, Hospitality, Hygiene, Kitchen