Knowledge and practice of food handlers on food safety and health: A cross sectional study in one of Tehran’s districts

Background: The people involved in food preparation play a major role in contaminating it due to improper food handling. The goal of this study was to examine the knowledge and practice of food handlers in district two of Tehran. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive- analytical study was designed and data were collected via questionnaires. The reliability of the questionnaires were measured using Cronbach's alpha and Intra-class correlation obtained from test and re-test in an interval of 10 days. The reliability indices of the questionnaires were found to be above 70%, which were acceptable. The participants were selected by a simple random method (n=390). Correlation coefficient was used for analysis. Results: The highest number of male participants, with diploma education belonged to the age group of 20 to 29 years old with a job experience of two to five years and more than 50% of them had passed the public health course. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between knowledge and practice (P<0.001). In knowledge section 215 (55.3%) of respondents were at middle level. About the practice, although 195 (50%) of participants were placed at a good level, in some cases, such as how to find out the optimal temperature for cooking burgers and chicken, the right way to defrost food and the time needed to reheat the food were found lacking. Conclusion: Knowledge and practice in food handlers must be improved specially about the importance and role of temperature in food safety.