Food safety knowledge and awareness of food handlers in school feeding programmes in Mpumalanga, South Africa

Abstract

Food handlers working in school feeding programmes can play an important role in the prevention of outbreaks of foodborne diseases in schools. This research aims to investigate the food safety knowledge and awareness of food handlers working for the National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP), Mpumalanga, South Africa. A cross-sectional, quantitative research method was used and food handlers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. A total of 440 food handlers from 147 randomly selected public schools participated in this survey. The vast majority (98.9%) of the respondents were females of 36 years and older with a high school education. Up to 91.4% of NSNP food preparation facilities did not have a hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) programme in place and about 93.2% of food handlers did not know about HACCP. Up to 60% of food handlers did not know the correct procedure for washing a cutting board after it had been used. In addition, 95.5% of the food handlers had never sanitized utensils and cutting surfaces after cutting up raw meat. Most food handlers of the NSNP are lacking in knowledge, awareness and attitude on many important aspects of microbial food safety hazards.