Assessment of Knowledge and Practices of Food Hygiene among Food Vendors in North Central Geo-Political Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the Knowledge and Practice of food hygiene among food vendors in North East Zone, Nigeria. The researchers used descriptive survey design and the population of the study was some selected food vendors in North East Zone, with population of three hundred and sixty (360) where sixty (60) of them were sampled for the study through simple random sampling technique, the instrument used for the collection of data for the study was self-structured questionnaire and the data collected were analyzed using frequency counts and percentage. Findings of the study reveals that about 45.1% of the respondents have good personal hygiene practice while 54.9% of them have poor personal hygiene practices and in view of their food handling practices, 63.7% of them have good food hygiene practice while 36.3% have unhygienic food handling practices. Such improper personal hygiene and unhygienic food handling practices may lead to ill health and subsequent contamination of the food they handle. It is therefore recommended that food handlers should put more effort towards practicing good personal hygiene especially hand washing and the use protective devices while rendering food services.