FOOD HYGIENE AND SAFETY IN FAST FOOD RESTAURANTS IN BENIN CITY, EDO STATE

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Fast food consumption had been on the increase in Nigeria since the beginning of this decade due to massive proliferation of fast food restaurants. Food handlers play a major role in ensuring the safety and suitability of food at every stage in the food chain.
OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the study were firstly to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of food hygiene and safety among food handlers in fast food restaurants in Benin City, secondly to determine the level of compliance of these restaurants with section 4, 6 and 7 of the recommended code of practice of general principles of food hygiene and safety, and finally to determine the prevalence of food contamination in the fast food restaurants.
METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done. A systematic sampling method was used to select 350 food handlers who were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. An observational checklist was used to inspect all the 55 fast food restaurants in a walk-through survey. Ready-to-eat food samples were also collected and analyzed for the presence of bacteria. A simple random sampling method was used to select food handlers from each fast food restaurant and stool samples collected from them and analyzed for the presence of enteric bacteria.
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RESULTS: The mean age of the food handlers was 26.4 ± 6.1 years. There was good knowledge, attitude and practice of food hygiene and safety among the respondents. Knowledge was significantly influenced by education and duration of work. There was statistically significant difference between previous training and the practice of food hygiene and safety (p = 0.000). There was poor compliance with the recommended code of practice of general principles of food hygiene. The prevalence of food contamination in the fast food restaurants was 37.5%. Bacillus cereus (41.2%) and Staphylococcus aureus (33.3%) were the mostly implicated bacteria while salad, meat pie and fried rice were the most commonly contaminated foods.
CONCLUSION: This study had revealed poor compliance with recommended standards of food hygiene and safety and a high prevalence of food contamination in the fast food restaurants in Benin City.