Food safety knowledge levels of gastronomy/culinary arts students and food workers in Southern Turkey

Abstract

This research was aimed to analyze the food safety knowledge levels between gastronomy and culinary arts students and food workers in the Çukurova Region of Turkey. A total of 155 participants (80 students, 75 food workers) have participated in this cross-sectional study. The overall knowledge scores of food workers and the students were 89.33% and 78.89% respectively, and food workers have more scores in all sections (p<0.001). Hygiene certification, occupation, and working establishments had a significant association with total food safety scores; however, gender, marital status, age, education level, frequency of hygiene education, working experience, monthly income had no significant association with their scores (p>0.05). A positive correlation was found between gender, education status, hygiene certification, and frequency of receiving hygiene education; but no correlation was found between working in any food business, graduated high schools, and age of the students (p>0.05). More knowledge gaps of both groups have been found about time-temperature control, holding/storage temperature, and cross-contamination. Finally, it is important to measure the reflection of the hygiene training on practices and to make it regular in ensuring food safety.

Keywords

• Food safety
• Food workers
• Culinary art students

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