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The Level of Awareness of Fast Food Operators on Food Safety and Hygiene PracticesDOI: 10.4236/oalib.1104392, PP. 1-7 Subject Areas: Nutrition Keywords: Fast Food, Hygiene, Food Safety Abstract
The growing fast food sector in the Ghanaian economy
offers easy access to inexpensive food as well as new job opportunities for
urban residents. While this development is positive in many ways, it also
presents new public health challenges for the urban population. Maintaining
safe food at the street level is a major concern to food control officers since
outbreaks of most diarrheal diseases have
been linked to street foods such as fast foods. This study concentrated on the
level of awareness of fast food operators on food safety and hygiene practices
in the Takoradi metropolis. Thirty-four fast food operators were selected through the stratified
random sampling technique for extensive participant observations and to answer
questionnaire. The study found out that although operators made up of the youth
between the ages of 18 - 35 years demonstrated basic knowledge of food safety, the criteria used
to define safe food by them did not emphasize basic hygiene practices such as
hand washing, cleaning of utensils, washing of raw vegetables, and quality of
ingredients. It also indicated that most (91.2%) of the operators had no
background in catering education. The study therefore recommends that food
control departments in the country should put in place measures to ensure that
every operator found in the fast food business has some kind of knowledge on
the basics of the trade.
Amoah, M. , Adonu, R. E. and Paintsil, E. (2018). The Level of Awareness of Fast Food Operators on Food Safety and Hygiene Practices. Open Access Library Journal, 5, e4392. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104392. References
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