U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Food Safety and Inspection Service

  • News & Events
  • Food Safety
  • Science & Data

Page Hero

Food Safety Research Priorities & Studies

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has developed a listing of the top food safety research areas of interest. FSIS has also identified key data gaps and laboratory methods that are needed to fulfill our mission.

While FSIS is not a research funding organization, it recognizes the importance of keeping abreast of the latest scientific endeavors as well as its role in promoting research in areas important to the FSIS mission. This listing supports the three goals of the FSIS Strategic Plan :

  • Prevent Foodborne Illness and Protect Public Health
  • Modernize Inspection Systems, Policies, and the Use of Scientific Approaches
  • Achieve Operational Excellence

These priorities are presented as suggestions for researchers interested in pursuing food safety objectives that are relevant to FSIS regulated products. This list of research areas of interest may be useful to researchers who are preparing grants for submission to agencies that fund food safety research (e.g., USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture ( http://www.nifa.usda.gov ), National Institutes of Health ( https://www.nih.gov/ ), Grants.gov ( http://www.grants.gov ), or researchers with resources to conduct such research.

While FSIS is extremely interested in these research areas, this interest does not imply that the data and/or technologies generated by this research will be endorsed by FSIS.

This list represents FSIS' current assessment of priority research that will help further its public health mission; the list will be updated biannually. We encourage researchers to contact Dr. Isabel Walls by e-mail ( [email protected] ) or at (202) 924-1420 and Dr. John Hicks by e-mail ( [email protected] ) or at (301) 504-0840 with questions. We also welcome information about research on related topics not currently listed here.

Research Priorities

Chemicals of potential concern, screening/detection methods.

  • Develop or improve rapid methods for screening chemical compounds in FSIS regulated products
  • Develop models to estimate chemical residue concentrations in beef, pork, and chicken tissues

Chemical Characterization

  • Determine the magnitude and significance of migration of chemicals (e.g., endocrine disruptors) from packaging into FSIS regulated products

Intervention Strategies

  • Identify and/or develop and evaluate the effectiveness of pre- and post-harvest interventions to reduce levels of chemical hazards in FSIS regulated products

Biological Hazards

Screening/detection/enumeration methods.

  • Identify and evaluate improved sampling methods to ensure statistically relevant samples are collected in the most appropriate manner
  • Develop or refine technologies to reduce pathogen detection time, including improved sample preparation methods
  • Develop or refine technologies to detect multiple pathogens from a single sample of an FSIS regulated product
  • Develop or refine testing methods for quantifying pathogens in meat, poultry, and egg products

Pathogen Characterization

  • Develop bioinformatic methods for identifying epidemiologically meaningful patterns in whole genome sequence data
  • Develop or refine technologies for virulence/ pathogenicity characterization of pathogens
  • Improve our understanding of antimicrobial resistance in pathogens in poultry and cattle
  • Develop or refine cooking and cooling models for pathogens in foods
  • Determine the contribution of endogenous extra-intestinal sources of pathogens (e.g., lymph nodes) to contamination of FSIS-regulated products
  • Evolution and Ecology of Foodborne Pathogens
  • Identify and/or develop and evaluate the effectiveness of pre- and post-harvest interventions to reduce levels of pathogens in FSIS regulated products
  • Evaluate the impact of regulatory initiatives on food contamination
  • Identify consumer or retail practices which compromise the safety of FSIS regulated products
  • Generate data to develop public education and outreach to improve food-handling practices

Animal Welfare

  • Identify or develop approaches to facilitate humane handling of FSIS regulated livestock

Label Verification

  • Develop improved techniques for species identity in raw and processed products

FSIS has identified the following data gaps, where data are needed to inform FSIS policy and guidance documents.  Collecting these data will benefit small and very small producers of meat, poultry, and egg products.

FSIS Data Gaps

1. A study is underway at USDA's Agriculture Research Service in support of this project.

Laboratory Detection Methods

FSIS has identified studies that pertain to validating and optimizing new laboratory methods, that may be adopted in the FSIS laboratory system after the basic research has been completed.

Research Studies

The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has developed a list of the top food safety research areas of interest. Below are a list of specific research studies associated with our food safety research priorities. 

1. Preharvest Interventions

2. postharvest, 3. consumer/retail, related resources.

Food safety journal covers

Journal Publications

Import inspector at work

Quarterly Enforcement Reports

Woman inspects pork as it goes through processing

Humane Handling Enforcement

Start your search, popular topics.

  • Research note
  • Open access
  • Published: 22 October 2019

Factors associated with food safety practices among food handlers: facility-based cross-sectional study

  • Jember Azanaw 1 ,
  • Mulat Gebrehiwot 1 &
  • Henok Dagne 1  

BMC Research Notes volume  12 , Article number:  683 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

71k Accesses

40 Citations

Metrics details

The primary objective of this study was to assess factors associated with food safety practices among food handlers in Gondar city food and drinking establishments. The facility-based cross-sectional study was undertaken from March 3 to May 28, 2018, in Gondar city. Simple random sampling method was used to select both establishments and the food handlers. The data were collected through face-to-face interview using pre-tested Amharic version of the questionnaire. Data were entered and coded into Epi info version 7.0.0 and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis.

One hundred and eighty-eight (49.0%) had good food handling practice out of three hundred and eighty-four food handlers. Marital status (AOR: 0.36, 95% CI 0.05, 0.85), safety training (AOR: 4.01, 95% CI 2.71, 9.77), supervision by health professionals (AOR: 4.10, 95% CI 1.71, 9.77), routine medical checkup (AOR: 8.80, 95% CI 5.04, 15.36), and mean knowledge (AOR: 2.92, 95% CI 1.38, 4.12) were the factors significantly associated with food handling practices. The owners, managers and local health professionals should work on food safety practices improvement.

Introduction

Food safety continues as a critical problem in developed and developing nations for people, food companies and food control officials [ 1 , 2 ]. Food-borne diseases (FBD) are associated with outbreaks and threatens global public health security and has got an international concern [ 3 ]. Food safety is a growing public health issue [ 4 ]. FBD is responsible for significant morbidity and mortality rates [ 5 ]. The worldwide incidence and financial expenses of food-borne diseases are hard to determine [ 6 ]. However, reports estimate that 2.1 million individuals died each year as a result of foodborne disease [ 5 ].

According to the WHO, FBDs in developing nations are serious because of bad hygienic food handling methods, bad understanding and absence of infrastructure [ 7 ]. This is due to the prevailing poor food handling and sanitation practices, inadequate food safety laws, weak regulatory systems, lack of financial resources, etc. [ 6 , 8 ]. Evidence revealed that around 70% of diarrhoea cases were attributed to food-borne routes in developing countries [ 6 ]. Like other developing countries, the burden of food-borne diseases is growing in Ethiopia [ 18 ].

Approximately 10 to 20% of FBD outbreaks are because of contamination due to poor food handling practice of the food handlers [ 9 ]. In the absence of well-maintained and proper food handling practices in mass catering establishments have the potential to impart a disastrous effect on human health [ 6 , 11 ].

Good personal hygiene and food handling practices are important for preventing the transmission of pathogens from food handlers to the consumers [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Close to 75% of food-borne illness outbreaks are attributed to lack of safe food handling practices by food handlers in food service establishments [ 5 ]. Food handlers play a key role in ensuring strict adherence to food safety principles throughout the whole process [ 15 ].

There is a high expansion of food establishments observed in the country including Gondar city. But ensuring safe food service has been one of the major challenges and concerns for producers, consumers and public health officials. Studies revealed that lack of basic sanitary facilities/infrastructures, poor knowledge and practice of hygiene and sanitation among food handlers in food service establishments, and negligence in safe food handling are major reasons of poor food safety practice in food establishments [ 16 , 17 ]. Therefore, it is very essential to identify factors affecting safe food handling practices, especially during preparation and serving. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate factors associated with food safety practice among food handlers in Gondar city food establishments.

This facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted from March 3 to May 28, 2018 at Gondar city. Gondar city is one of the highly populated cities in northwest Ethiopia. There were a total of 326 food establishments and 4232 food handlers in Gondar city according to tourism office data. The city is found at 738 km away from Addis Ababa the capital city of Ethiopia. Ninety-eight food establishments were included using the rule of thumb by taking 30% of the total food establishments. n = N × 30% = 326 × 30/100 = 97.8 ≈ 98 none star food establishments.

The sample size was computed using a single population proportion formula with 95% CI, 5% marginal error (d) and p = 52% proportion of food handlers having good food handling practice from the previous study [ 19 ]. Based on these assumptions, 384 food handlers were included in the study.

To select food establishments and food handlers, a simple random sampling technique was used. In each institution, four food handlers were interviewed. After adaptation from similar literature [ 12 , 19 , 20 , 21 ], the questionnaire was first prepared in English and translated to local language Amharic version. The pre-test was performed on 5% food handlers out of the study area before actual data collection. Then, correction and modification were undertaken based on the gaps identified during the pre-test. Reliability of the questionnaire was also evaluated. The information was gathered via a face-to-face interview using the questionnaire’s Amharic version. Four Environmental Health Officers have been engaged as data collectors and the principal investigator was involved as a supervisor. Food safety practice was the dependent variable in this research. Socio-demographic variables and behavioural factors were the independent variables. Food handling practice: food handlers were asked seventeen questions and those who scored less than or equal to the mean value were considered as having poor practice and those who scored greater than the mean value were considered as having good practice [ 19 , 21 ]. Knowledge: Respondents were asked ten questions and those who scored less than or equal to the mean value were considered as having a poor knowledge [ 12 , 22 ].

Consistency and completeness of data were verified during collection, entry and analysis. Data were entered and coded into version 7.0.0 of Epi Info and exported for evaluation to version 22 of SPSS. The data were analysed using descriptive (frequency and proportion), bivariate, and multivariable regression analysis. Variables with p-value < 0.25 during bivariate analysis were included in multivariable regression to assess the independent effect after controlling other variables [ 23 ].

We did Hosmer and Lemeshow test to check the model fitness. SPSS Cronbach’s Alpha test result for practice questionnaire was 0.83. Finally, 95% confidence level, AOR and p-value less than 0.05 were considered for determining statistically significant variables.

Sociodemographic characteristics of study participants

Of the three hundred eighty-four food handlers, 338 (88%) were females, 300 (78.1%) were unmarried; and 318 (82.8%) had an income of 500–1000 Ethiopian birr (28 ETB = 1 USD) (Table  1 ).

Knowledge of food handlers regarding the cause of food-borne disease, mode of transmission and way of food contamination

Three hundred sixteen (82.29%) of food handlers stated that food-borne diseases are caused by germs. More than half 199 (51.8%) of food handlers found this information from health center about food safety practices (Table  2 ).

Food handling practice of food handlers in food and drinking establishments

More than half of (51.5%) food handlers use hair net during food preparation. One hundred ninety (49.5%) of food handlers did not attend routine medical checkups. About 37% of the respondents were not wearing a uniform during handling and preparation of food (Table  3 ).

Factors associated with food safety practices

Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that marital status, food safety training, routine medical checkup, supervision by health professionals and knowledge were statistically associated variables with food safety practices.

Single food handlers were 64.0% less likely to practice food safety than the single food handlers (AOR: 0.36, 95% CI 0.05, 0.85). Food handlers supervised by health professionals were 4.10 times more likely to practice good food safety than non-supervised (AOR: 4.10, 95% CI 1.71, 5.27). Knowledgeable food handlers were 2.92 times more likely to practices good food safety than non-knowledgeable (AOR: 2.92, 95% CI 1.38, 4.12). Trained food handers were 4.01 times more likely to have good food handling practice than non-trained food handlers (AOR: 4.01, 95% CI 2.71, 9.77). Food handers followed routine medical checkup had 8.80 times more likely to have good food handling practice than not- followed food handlers (AOR: 8.80, 95% CI 5.04, 15.36) (Table  3 ).

One hundred eighty-eight (49.0%) food handlers had good food safety practice. This finding is lower than the findings of studies in Bahir Dar (67.6%) [ 24 ], Arba Minch (67.4%) [ 21 ] and in Dubai (81.74%) [ 17 ]. While the finding was close with studies in Dangila town (52.5%), Addis Ababa (52.3%), Imo State, Nigeria (50%) and Turkey (48.4%) [ 6 , 19 , 25 , 26 ], respectively. However, it is higher than the studies done in Gondar town (22.1%) [ 5 ], South-Western Nigeria (19.0%) [ 27 ], Ogun, Nigeria (31.5%) [ 19 ]. These variations might be due to the difference in the study design, variation in training, and the provision of food hygiene and safety inputs. About 109 (28.4%) of the food handlers were certified in food safety training. This result is higher as compared with findings from Bahir Dar (21.8%) and Mekelle (15.7%) [ 12 , 28 ]. Food handler training is seen as one strategy whereby food safety practice can be increased, offering long-term benefits to the food establishments [ 29 ]. This finding is supported with studies conducted India [ 10 ], Nigeria [ 30 ], Ghana [ 31 ] and Dubai [ 32 ]. The number of food handlers who recieved food safety training in the current study is higher than with findings from Bahir Dar (21.8%), and Mekelle (5.4%) [ 12 , 28 ]. Food handlers who received training would have a better understanding of safe food handling practice as they might get professional advice during training. Training could enhance food handlers overall performance in safe food handling practice [ 21 ]. In this study, food handlers who got safety training had higher odds of good food safety practice. This might be due to trained food handlers gain good awareness through training. This supported with other similar study done in Sarawak [ 33 ]. Training programs are important for improving the knowledge of food handlers [ 34 ]. Food safety practice was also positively associated with the level of knowledge. The probability of having a good food safety practice among participants with good level of knowledge was 2.39 times higher with compared to those with a poor level knowledge (AOR = 2.39, 95% CI 1.38, 4.12). Food handlers are expected to have substantial knowledge and skills for handling foods hygienically [ 12 ]. This might be due to those food handlers who had a good level knowledge might have a higher chance of good food handling practice. This finding was supported studies conducted in Gondar town, and Malaysia [ 5 , 15 ]. Marital status was another significantly associated factor with food safety practices. Single food handlers had lower probability of good food safety practices compared with divorced handlers. This is supported with the study done in Gondar town and Dangila town [ 19 ].

Food safety practice was significantly associated with supervision by health professionals. The probability of having good food safety practice was higher among food handlers supervised by health professionals as compared with non-supervised. This finding was supported by the study conducted in Arba Minch [ 21 ]. This might be due to supervisors give advice for food handlers, the owners and to the managers. A routine medical checkup was also another factor significantly associated with good food handling practice. The probability of having good food safety practice among food handlers engaged with routine medical checkup was higher than food handlers not engaged in routine medical checkup. This could be the health care workers gave advice for food handlers during examination. This finding is in line with studies conducted in Arba Minch and Dessie towns [ 20 , 21 ]. This study revealed that there was poor food handling practice among food handlers. Marital status, food safety training, supervision by health professionals, routine medical checkup, and level of knowledge of food handlers were significantly associated with good food handling practice. Owners, managers and local health professionals should enhance the level of knowledge of food handlers, provide food hygiene, safety training, undertake periodic supervision, and routine medical checkup.

Limitations

This study was not without limitations. Some of the limitations include inherent weakness of cross-sectional study to establish a cause–effect relationship, social desirability bias and recall bias.

Availability of data and materials

We will make data available upon request the primary author.

Abbreviations

World Health Organization

adjusted odds ratio

confidence interval

crude odds ratio

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

Ethiopian Birr

Institutional Review Board

Osaili TM, Al-Nabulsi AA, Krasneh HDA. Food safety knowledge among food service staff at the universities in Jordan. Food Control. 2018;89:167–76.

Article   Google Scholar  

Smigic N, Djekic I, Martins ML, Rocha A, Sidiropoulou N, Kalogianni EP. The level of food safety knowledge in food establishments in three European countries. Food Control. 2016;63:187–94.

Adesokan HK, Akinseye VO, Adesokan GA. Food safety training is associated with improved knowledge and behaviours among foodservice establishments’ workers. Int J Food Sci. 2015;2015:328761.

Osimani A, Aquilanti L, Tavoletti S, Clementi F. Evaluation of the HACCP system in a university canteen: microbiological monitoring and internal auditing as verification tools. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013;10(4):1572–85.

Gizaw Z, Gebrehiwot M, Teka Z. Food safety practice and associated factors of food handlers working in substandard food establishments in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia, 2013/14. Int J Food Sci Nutr Diet. 2014;3(7):138–46.

Google Scholar  

Meleko A, Henok A, Tefera W, Lamaro T. Assessment of the sanitary conditions of catering establishments and food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers in Addis Ababa University Students’ Cafeteria. Science. 2015;3(5):733–43.

Fasanmi O, Makinde G, Popoola M, Fasina O, Matere J, Ogundare S. Potential risk factors associated with carcass contamination in slaughterhouse operations and hygiene in Oyo state, Nigeria. Int J Livestock Prod. 2018;9(8):211–20.

World Health Organization. WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases: foodborne disease burden epidemiology reference grou. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015. p. 2007–15.

Girma G. Prevalence, Antibiogram and Growth Potential of Salmonella and Shigella in Ethiopia: implications for Public Health: a Review. Res J Microbiol. 2015;10(7):288.

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Ali AI, Immanuel G. Assessment of hygienic practices and microbiological quality of food in an institutional food service establishment. J Food Process Technol. 2017;8:8.

Manes MR, Liu LC, Dworkin MS. Baseline knowledge survey of restaurant food handlers in suburban Chicago: do restaurant food handlers know what they need to know to keep consumers safe? J Environ Health. 2013;76(1):18–27.

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Kibret M, Abera B. The sanitary conditions of food service establishments and food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers in Bahir Dar town. Ethiop J Health Sci. 2012;22(1):27–35.

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Al-Shabib NA, Mosilhey SH, Husain FM. Cross-sectional study on food safety knowledge, attitude and practices of male food handlers employed in restaurants of King Saud University, Saudi Arabia. Food Control. 2016;59:212–7.

Wambui J, Karuri E, Lamuka P, Matofari J. Good hygiene practices among meat handlers in small and medium enterprise slaughterhouses in Kenya. Food Control. 2017;81:34–9.

Asmawi UMM, Norehan AA, Salikin K, Rosdi NAS, Munir NATA, Basri NBM. An assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices in food safety among food handlers engaged in food courts. Curr Res Nutr Food Sci J. 2018;6(2):346–53.

Okonko I, Adejoye O, Ogun A, Ogunjobi A, Nkang A, Adebayo-Tayo B. Hazards analysis critical control points (HACCP) and microbiology qualities of sea-foods as affected by handler’s hygience in Ibadan and Lagos, Nigeria. Afr J Food Sci (ACFS). 2009;3(2):35–50.

Kumie A, Mezene A, Amsalu A, Tizazu A, Bikila B. The sanitary condition of food and drink establishment in Awash-Sebat Kilo town, Afar Region, Ethiopia. Ethiop J Health Develop. 2006;20:3.

Mendedo EK, Berhane Y, Haile BT. Factors associated with sanitary conditions of food and drinking establishments in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: cross-sectional study. Pan Afr Med J. 2017;28(1):237.

Tessema AG, Gelaye KA, Chercos DH. Factors affecting food handling Practices among food handlers of Dangila town food and drink establishments, North West Ethiopia. BMC Public Health. 2014;14(1):571.

Adane M, Teka B, Gismu Y, Halefom G, Ademe M. Food hygiene and safety measures among food handlers in street food shops and food establishments of Dessie town, Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study. PLoS ONE. 2018;13(5):e0196919.

Legesse D, Tilahun M, Agedew E, Haftu D. Food handling practices and associated factors among food handlers in arba minch town public food establishments in Gamo Gofa Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Epidemiology (Sunnyvale). 2017;7(302):2161–5.

Nee SO, Sani NA. Assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among food handlers at residential colleges and canteen regarding food safety. Sains Malaysiana. 2011;40(4):403–10.

Mickey RM, Greenland S. The impact of confounder selection criteria on effect estimation. Am J Epidemiol. 1989;129(1):125–37.

Derso T, Tariku A, Ambaw F, Alemenhew M, Biks GA, Nega A. Socio-demographic factors and availability of piped fountains affect food hygiene practice of food handlers in Bahir Dar Town, northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study. BMC Res Notes. 2017;10(1):628.

Iwu AC, Uwakwe KA, Duru CB, Diwe KC, Chineke HN, Merenu IA, et al. Knowledge, attitude and practices of food hygiene among food vendors in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. J Occup Environ Med. 2017;5:11–25.

Baş M, Ersun AŞ, Kıvanç G. The evaluation of food hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food handlers’ in food businesses in Turkey. Food Control. 2006;17(4):317–22.

Faremi FA, Olatubi MI, Nnabuife GC. Food safety and hygiene practices among food vendors in a Tertiary Educational Institution in South Western Nigeria. Eur J Nutr Food Saf. 2018;8:59–70.

Lalit I, Brkti G, Dejen Y. Magnitude of hygienic practices and its associated factors of food handlers working in selected food and drinking establishments in Mekelle town, northern Ethiopia. Int Food Res J. 2015;22(6):914.

Gaungoo Y, Jeewon R. Effectiveness of training among food handlers: a review on the Mauritian Framework. Curr Res Nutr Food Sci J. 2013;1(1):01–9.

Afolaranmi TO, Hassan ZI, Misari Z, Dan EE, Judith O, Kubiat NN, et al. Food safety and hygiene practices among food Vendorsin Tertiary Hospitals Inplateau State Nigeria. World J Res Rev. 2013;25:1.

Annor GA, Baiden EA. Evaluation of food hygiene knowledge attitudes and practices of food handlers in food businesses in Accra, Ghana. Food Nutr Sci. 2011;2(08):830.

Al Suwaidi A, Hussein H, Al Faisal W, El Sawaf E, Wasfy A. Hygienic practices among food handlers in Dubai. Int J Prevent Med Res. 2012;1(3):101–8.

Rahman MM, Arif MT, Bakar K, Talib Z. Food safety knowledge, attitude and hygiene practices among the street food vendors in Northern Kuching City, Sarawak. Borneo Sci. 2016;31:94–103.

Seaman P, Eves A. Perceptions of hygiene training amongst food handlers, managers and training providers—a qualitative study. Food Control. 2010;21(7):1037–41.

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all study participants, data collectors, food establishment owners and the University of Gondar for their willingness and support to the success of this study.

The authors of this study have received no funds from anywhere but the University of Gondar has covered questionnaire duplication fees.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia

Jember Azanaw, Mulat Gebrehiwot & Henok Dagne

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

JA took part in the research development proposal, data collection tools, entered data into Epi-info, analyse and interpret the data, and write various parts of the research report. MG and HD advised from the starting to the end. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jember Azanaw .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

We got ethical clearance from the Institutional Review Board (IRB/47/2010) of the Institution of Public Health, University of Gondar. Written informed consent was obtained from each study participants. The consent of the city administrator, the manager of the food and drinking establishments, and the respondents took part willingly. We kept the confidentiality of the respondents and for the food and drinking establishments by asking the participants not to write their names on the questionnaires and codes to conceal the identity of the food and drinking establishments. We used the collected data for this research purpose only. We forwarded health educations to the study participants by data collectors and the principal investigator at the end of the data collection.

Consent to publication

This manuscript does not contain an individual person and institutional data.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Azanaw, J., Gebrehiwot, M. & Dagne, H. Factors associated with food safety practices among food handlers: facility-based cross-sectional study. BMC Res Notes 12 , 683 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-019-4702-5

Download citation

Received : 10 August 2019

Accepted : 04 October 2019

Published : 22 October 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-019-4702-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Food handlers
  • Food safety
  • Hygiene practices
  • Food establishment
  • Food-borne diseases

BMC Research Notes

ISSN: 1756-0500

importance of food safety research paper

  • Research article
  • Open access
  • Published: 03 May 2021

Food safety knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices of street-cooked food handlers in North Dayi District, Ghana

  • Lawrence Sena Tuglo 1 ,
  • Percival Delali Agordoh 2 ,
  • David Tekpor 3 ,
  • Zhongqin Pan 1 ,
  • Gabriel Agbanyo 3 &
  • Minjie Chu   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7533-9119 1  

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine volume  26 , Article number:  54 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

45k Accesses

37 Citations

Metrics details

Food safety and hygiene are currently a global health apprehension especially in unindustrialized countries as a result of increasing food-borne diseases (FBDs) and accompanying deaths. This study aimed at assessing knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices (KAP) of food safety among street-cooked food handlers (SCFHs) in North Dayi District, Ghana.

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted on 407 SCFHs in North Dayi District, Ghana. The World Health Organization’s Five Keys to Safer Food for food handlers and a pretested structured questionnaire were adapted for data collection among stationary SCFHs along principal streets. Significant parameters such as educational status, average monthly income, registered SCFHs, and food safety training course were used in bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models to calculate the power of the relationships observed.

The majority 84.3% of SCFHs were female and 56.0% had not attended a food safety training course. This study showed that 67.3%, 58.2%, and 62.9% of SCFHs had good levels of KAP of food safety, respectively. About 87.2% showed a good attitude of separating uncooked and prepared meal before storage. Good knowledge of food safety was 2 times higher among registered SCFHs compared to unregistered [cOR=1.64, p =0.032]. SCFHs with secondary education were 4 times good at hygiene practices of food safety likened to no education [aOR=4.06, p =0.003]. Above GHc1500 average monthly income earners were 5 times good at hygiene practices of food safety compared to below GHc500 [aOR=4.89, p =0.006]. Registered SCFHs were 8 times good at hygiene practice of food safety compared to unregistered [aOR=7.50, p <0.001]. The odd for good hygiene practice of food safety was 6 times found among SCFHs who had training on food safety courses likened to those who had not [aOR=5.97, p <0.001].

Conclusions

Over half of the SCFHs had good levels of KAP of food safety. Registering as SCFH was significantly associated with good knowledge and hygiene practices of food safety. Therefore, our results may present an imperative foundation for design to increase food safety and hygiene practice in the district, region, and beyond.

Introduction

A report by the World Health Organization (WHO) (2015) showed that about two million incurable cases of food poisoning materialize annually in unindustrialized nations. The WHO further estimates that 600 million food-borne diseases (FBDs) each year were related to poor food safety and hygiene practice with 420,000 deaths [ 1 ], the majority attributed to meat-related vulnerabilities [ 2 ]. About, 76 million FBDs caused 325,000 hospitalizations in the USA which led to 5000 deaths [ 3 ]. The source was associated with the consumption of turkey contaminated by Salmonella enterica serovar Heidelberg , responsible for salmonellosis in the USA [ 4 ]. Almost, 1.3 million FBDs resulted in 21,000 hospital stays reported in England which led to 500 deaths. The contamination was due to sprouts by Escherichia coli O104 [ 3 ]. Around 53% of the food-borne problems and 31% of its associated illness were attributed to meat consumption in the Netherlands [ 2 ]. The rate of FBDs in Malaysia was 47.8% out of 100,000 people who patronized street-cooked foods [ 5 ]. In Ghana, about 65,000 persons including 5000 kids below 5 years died yearly due to FBDs [ 6 ].

The risk factors such as inappropriate time interval, unsuitable temperature, weather condition, unhygienic activities, unacceptable handling of foods, foodstuff from insecure origins, impoverished self-cleanliness, improper cleaning of cooking materials, using untreated water, and improper food storages were attributed to the causes of FBDs [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. Also, neglect of hygienic measures by food handlers has been implicated as enablers for the spread of pathogenic microorganisms [ 10 ] and the cause of infections among consumers [ 11 ].

Studies recount that 12 to 18% of food-borne illnesses are attributable to contaminations [ 12 , 13 ], poor food safety, and inappropriate hygiene practices which were accredited to street-cooked food handlers (SCFHs) [ 14 , 15 ]. These SCFHs are people who are wholly or partly engaged in the food preparation, processing, and production value chain and who have a direct touch on food and cooking utensils [ 9 , 16 ]. Foods prepared by food handlers under unhygienic conditions become a public health concern both in industrialized and low-income countries [ 17 ]. Food safety and hygienic practices of SCFHs are essential to ensure that food is free from any forms of contamination through preparation and processing for consumption and to prevent the spread of FBDs [ 18 , 19 ].

Food safety knowledge (FSK) is the understanding of food learned from skills or schooling, food safety attitude (FSA) refers to sensation or belief about food safety, and food safety practice refers (FSP) to the act or use of food safety [ 20 ]. Food safety knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) are important because inadequate knowledge, poor attitude, and poor sanitation practices by SCFHs have a severe danger to food safety applications in food companies [ 21 ]; hence, KAP of food safety contributes significantly to the occurrence of food poisoning and FBDs among consumers [ 22 ].

A study conducted in Brazil among food truck food handlers revealed poor hygiene, poor clean observes, poor environments, and higher contaminated meals [ 23 ]. The problem of FBDs was higher in Southeast Asian and African counties [ 24 ]. Ma et al. [ 25 ] study in China, among street food vendors, revealed poor behaviour practices and knowledge of food safety among the respondents. Tabit and Teffo [ 26 ] in South Africa found over 60% of the respondents keep good knowledge and acceptable hygiene performance of food safety. Lema et al. [ 27 ] in Ethiopia reported that below half of the respondents obtained good food cleanliness applications. The effects of food-related illness expenditures in hospital treatments are about US$ 110 billion annually in developing countries, which resulted in decreasing production [ 28 ].

The recurrent happenings of food-related illnesses brought in its wake concerns about the food safety knowledge and hygiene among SCFHs [ 29 ]. Maintaining food safety involves establishing global laws conferring to an agreement between institutions that actualized this agenda [ 30 , 31 ]. The Government of Ghana affirmed food safety regulations in collaboration with the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) [ 30 ]. Yet, its application is undermined due to ineffective supervision by appropriate agencies [ 32 ]. The problem was due to the broad governmental assembly in cities and communities under the local administration [ 31 ]. Some local studies conducted in the four regions of Ghana such as Greater Accra, Northern, Western, and Central have reported adequate knowledge, good attitude, and positive behavioural practices of food safety and handling practices [ 11 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Studies have shown that SCFHs were not knowledgeable about the WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food for food handlers [ 33 , 36 ] which include keeping clean, separating raw and cooked food, cooking thoroughly, keeping food at safe temperatures, and using safe water and raw materials [ 37 ].

Hence, the acceptance and the use of the KAP instrument as a problem-solving approach in this study are validated from previous researches [ 23 , 38 , 39 ]. This would adequately support the policymaking development and the change of embattled intervention policies for the prevention and control of FBDs. The KAP’s tool assessment defined in this study is considered appropriate to other frameworks if the statements in the KAP’s sections are validated. To our knowledge, no research has yet been done on KAP of food safety among SCFHs selling commonly consumable foods on the street in Volta Region, Ghana. Hitherto, the high cases of FBDs such as diarrhoea, cholera, and typhoid fever outbreak occurrences in the district are presumed to be influenced by SCFHs. The KAP of SCFHs on food safety and hygiene precautions ruins uncertainty in the district, and a swift policy to mend some causes central to the occurrence of FBDs is obligatory. This would help the District Health Directorate’s regulatory agency to plan the prevention methods. Therefore, this study assessed knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices of food safety on SCFHs in North Dayi District, Ghana.

Materials and methods

Study design and setting.

This study was a descriptive cross-sectional carried out between August and November 2020 and used a validated, pretested, and structured questionnaire to collect data from stationary SCFHs along the principal streets within North Dayi District. North Dayi District is one of the 18 administrative districts in the Volta Region, Ghana [ 40 ]. It shares boundaries with Kpando Municipal to the north, South Dayi District to the south, and Afadzato South District to the east. The entire residents of the North Dayi District are 39,913 covering 46.7% men and 53.3% women [ 40 ]. The people of the District constitute 1.9% of the total population of the Volta Region [ 40 ]. Farming is the foremost financial activity, making it one of the main sources of income in the district [ 40 ]. We carried out this study because of the recent cases of food-borne illness reported among the residents such as diarrhoea, cholera, and typhoid fever in the district [ 41 ].

figure a

Eligibility criteria

Stationary SCFHs who directly served already cooked food to customers and those who owned their outlets were included in the study. SCFHs who dissented to partake in the research were excepted including all assistants and helpers. The assistants and helpers were excluded because not all vendors had assistants or helpers and they tend to be more in numbers than the vendor-owners themselves. So for as not to allow bias in the results, we chose to sample only the vendor-owners. Moreover, vendor-owners tend to have direct responsibility for monitoring the food safety environment of their vending sites; hence, we chose to sample them as the focus of this study.

Sample size and sampling

Cochran’s formula Z 2 p  (1 −  p )/ e 2 [ 42 ] for unknown study populations was used. Since a similar study in the Volta Region of Ghana among the population subgroup is unavailable, 50% was used for response distribution, with 95% confidence level, and a margin of error of 5% for the populace, plus 10% non-response rate which gave us a sample size of 423.

Data collection tools

A structured questionnaire was designed based on different studies conducted globally [ 16 , 20 , 38 , 39 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ]. Similar versions of the questionnaires were used in studies conducted in Ghana [ 47 , 48 , 49 ]. The instrument was distributed into 4 parts: socio-demographics, knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices. The statements on KAP were adapted from the WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food guidebook for food handlers [ 37 ]. The questionnaire was firstly designed in English, then converted to local dialects, and translated back to English to ensure reliability and simplicity of the question. Four professionals in the field of the study assessed the face and the content validity of the questionnaire. The questionnaire was pretested on 12 stationary SCFHs in Tanyigbe located 7 km from the study area. The pretesting findings were not added to the main study but were used to modify some questions to improve their clarity. The most pertinent modifications done on the study instrument were a cooked meal should stay hot more than 60°C before serving, putting uncooked and prepared meal separating prevent cross-contamination, and checking and dispose of meal that past their expiry date. The data were collected through trained research assistant-led interviews which lasted for about 25 min per respondent. The interviewer-administered questionnaire was given to the SCFHs who could read and write to answer by themselves while those SCFHs who could not read and write have been aided by the research assistants in answering the questionnaire.

Determination of knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices on food safety

Section 2 of the questionnaire contained 10 structured questions on knowledge of food safety with 3 likely responses; “true”, “false”, and “do not know”. The questions precisely covered the respondents’ knowledge of individual cleanliness, food-borne illnesses, microbes, infection control, and sanitary practices. Each correct knowledge item reported was awarded a score of 1 point. Incorrect knowledge was awarded a 0 score (including “do not know”). In this study, if “true” is the correct answer, then “true” is score 1 point while “false” is score 0 point or otherwise reverse.

Queries relating to attitudes in the third segment of the questionnaire were designed to assess the knowledge of SCFHs on food wellbeing and hygiene. This part of the section assessed psychological state concerning views, opinion, morals, and characters to act in particular [ 21 , 48 ]. It contains 10 structured queries with 3 likely answers: “agree”, “disagree”, and “not sure”. Each correct attitude reported was awarded a score of 1 point while the other incorrect attitude option was rated a 0 score (including “not sure”). In this study, if “agree” is the correct answer, then “agree” is score 1 point while “disagree” is score 0 point or otherwise reverse.

  • Hygiene practice

Section 4 of the questionnaire measured food hygiene and sanitation practices of SCFHs. It contained 10 structured queries with 2 likely answers: “yes” and “no”. Each correct hygiene practice reported was awarded a score of 1 point while incorrect hygiene practices reported were awarded a score of 0. This method of assessment was used in previous studies [ 28 ]. In this study, if “yes” is the correct answer, then “yes” is score 1 point while “no” is score 0 point or otherwise reverse.

The grouping method is appropriate and suitable for studies allied to the assessment “of food handlers” KAP of food safety and hygiene [ 27 , 28 , 34 , 46 , 47 , 50 , 51 , 52 ]. The knowledge and attitude questions with “do not know” or “not sure”, thus the third option, had been presented to enable simplicity of responding by SCFHs for fascinating for thoughts considered by an undecided or doubtfulness [ 28 ]. This third option “do not know” or “not sure” always scores a 0 point due to the cumulative percentage approach adapted which considers only the acceptable response or the correct answer [ 53 ]. The cumulative percentage scoring method of assessment considers only the acceptable answer and the total cumulative score is converted to 100% [ 53 ]. The cumulative scores below 70% of the acceptable responses on WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food-related knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices were considered as “poor”, and cumulative scores 70% and higher were considered as “good” [ 27 , 34 , 39 , 46 , 48 ].

Data analysis

Questionnaires were checked manually before entering into Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet. Coding and analysis were done in IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS Inc., Chicago, USA; https://www.spss.com ) version 24.0. Categorical variables were expressed as frequency and percentage. The disparity between categorical variable groups was verified using the Fisher exact or chi-square test where appropriate. Significant parameters were used in bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models to calculate the power of the relationships observed. A p -value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Ethical consideration

Approval was sought from Ghana Health Service, North Dayi District Health Directorate, with the identity (NDDHD/GR/002/20) 15/07/2020. The research assistants introduced themselves and written informed permission was sought from the respondents. The research method was plainly explained to the respondents in their native dialects (English, Ewe, or Twi). Participants were identified by study numbers. The study numbers of the participants were kept in both locked files and secured computer files and accessible only to key investigators. All data were anonymized and unlinked to the respondents’ identities during the data analysis.

Demographic data

A total complete of 423 questionnaires were conveniently distributed for data collection based on the availability of SCFHs at their dedicated vending sites. Questionnaires of 407 were fully answered and collected from the respondents with a 96.2% (407/423) success rate. n = Z 2 p  (1 −  p )/ e 2   = 1.96 2 0.5 (1 − 0.5)/0.05 2 =384.16+38.416 =422.576. The majority ( n =343; 84.3%) of SCFHs were female, were between the age range of 26 and 35 years ( n =153; 37.6%), and were married ( n =311; 76.4%). Over one-third ( n =144; 35.4%) of SCFHs had attained secondary education. Most ( n =168; 41.3%) of SCFHs earned an average monthly income between GHc501 and GHc1000. Over half ( n =217; 53.3%) of SCFHs had 3–10 years of working experience. Regarding SCFH registered, n =297 (73.0%) reported that they have registered. More than half ( n =228; 56.0%) of SCFHs had not attended a food safety training course (Fig. 1 ).

figure 1

Demographic data of respondents

Food safety knowledge

Almost all ( n = 381; 93.6%) of SCFHs knew about the washing of hands for 1 min using water and soap before touching food. The majority ( n =313; 76.9%) of SCFHs knew that similar chopping board should not be used for uncooked and prepared foods if it appears wash; n = 336 (82.6%) knew that cooked meal should stay hot before serving (more than 60°C); and n = 275 (67.6%) knew that excess meal should be kept at zone temperature and eat for the following mealtime. Most ( n =239; 58.7%) of SCFHs knew that uncooked meal should be kept individually from a prepared meal; n = 363 (89.2%) knew that treated water should be used for cooking; n = 363 (89.2%) knew that cockroach and house flies should not be allowed into the kitchen; and n = 274 (67.3%) knew that wiping cloths can spread microorganisms and cause disease. However, the majority ( n =235; 57.7%) of SCFHs did not know that food cooking utensils should not be cleaned using tap water only. Also, n = 202 (49.6%) of SCFHs did not know that fresh meat should not be stowed anyplace in the fridge once it is cool (Table 1 ).

Food safety attitude

The majority ( n =277; 68.1%) of SCFHs disagreed that regular hand cleaning throughout meal processing is needless; n = 323 (79.4%) agreed that cleaning kitchen shells lessen the danger of infection, and n = 355 (87.2%) agreed that putting uncooked and prepared meal separating stop infection. Below half ( n =181; 44.5%) of SCFHs agreed that they should be able to differentiate healthy diets and rotten food through eyeing; n =262 (64.4%) disagreed that using different knives and chopping materials for a fresh and prepared meal require more time; n = 366 (89.9%) agreed that they cough or sneeze inside the elbow if towel or paper not available; n = 291 (71.5%) agreed that checking meal for cleanliness and healthiness is important; and n =377 (92.6%) agreed that it is vital to dispose of meals that have gotten to expiring date. Nevertheless, n = 332 (81.6%) of SCFHs agreed that it is acceptable to use the same cloth for dusting and drying and n =217 (53.3%) disagreed that is unhealthy to allow prepared meal stay outside of the fridge for over 2 h (Table 2 ).

Food safety hygiene practice

The majority ( n =343; 84.3%) of SCFHs cleaned their fingers throughout meal cooking; n = 267 (65.6%) washed their cooking utensils used to cook a meal before using for a different meal; n =234 (57.5%) used different cooking bowls and chopping material if cooking a fresh and prepared meal; and n =359 (88.2%) dispersed uncooked and prepared meal before preservation. Also, n =278 (68.3%) keep prepared food at room temperature for 2 h when finished cooking; n =269 (66.1%) checked and disposed of meal past its expiry date; n =372 (91.4%) cleaned fresh food that needs no cooking before consumption; n =320 (78.6%) inspected if a meal is cooked by eyeing; and n =359 (88.2%) examined if a meal is grilled by touching it. Moreover, n =253 (62.2%) used similar kitchen cloth to clean shells and hands (Table 3 ).

SCFH knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practice on food safety classification

A high proportion ( n =274, 67.3%; n =237, 58.2%; and n =256, 62.9%) of SCFHs had good levels in knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices on food safety (Fig. 2 ).

figure 2

Levels of respondents’ knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practice on food safety

Association between knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practice and demographic data

Statistical significance was observed in the knowledge section among registered SCFHs ( p =0.031). None of the respondent’s socio-demographic data was statistically significant in the attitude section of food safety p < 0.05. The study found significant differences ( p <0.05) in the hygiene practice scores section with the educational status, average monthly income, registered SCFHs, and SCFHs completing food safety training course of food safety among SCFHs (Table 4 ). The odds ratio showed registered SCFHs were 1.6 times good at food safety knowledge likened to unregistered SCFHs [cOR=1.64 (95% CI 1.04–2.59), p =0.032]. The logistic regression analysis revealed that respondents who had secondary education were 4.1 times good at hygiene practice of food safety [aOR=4.06 (95% CI 1.63–10.11), p =0.003] compared to informal education. The respondents with average monthly income greater than GHc1500 were 4.9 times more likely to have good food safety and hygiene practices compared to those who earned less than Ghc500 average monthly income [aOR=4.89 (95% CI 1.56–15.34), p =0.006]. Meanwhile, registered SCFHs were 7.5 times more likely to have good food safety and hygiene practices compared to unregistered SCFHs [aOR=7.50 (95% CI 4.27–13.19), p <0.001]. The SCFHs who had completed a food safety training course were 6 times more likely to have good food safety and hygiene practices compared to those who had no such training [aOR=5.97 (95% CI 3.50–10.18), p <0.001] (Table 5 ).

Pearson correlation between knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practice toward food safety

The study revealed a positive correlation in the knowledge with the attitude outcomes sections (FSA) of food safety ( r =0.153, p =0.002) (Table 6 ).

The present study investigated knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices of food safety on SCFHs in North Dayi District of Volta Region, Ghana. This study showed that the majority of SCFHs had good knowledge of food safety. This would help decrease the threat to contamination of foods, food poisoning, and FBDs to the consumers. Studies conducted in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Ghana have identified the importance of knowledge of food safety to SCFHs and have recommended training programmes on food safety to cultivate the knowledge into hygiene practices [ 14 , 27 , 34 ]. Our finding is inconsistent with previous studies done in Ethiopia and Jordan [ 38 , 45 ], however consistent with studies conducted in Ghana and Malaysia [ 47 , 54 ]. The possible reasons could be the type of food training courses received, the sample size, the scoring rubric applied, and understandings acquired on the subjects. This supported claims, creating an optimistic culture of food safety, inhibit food contamination if incorporated periodically [ 44 , 46 ]. This scenario affirms that the food safety training courses may remarkably enhance the knowledge of food handlers, especially concerning FBDs.

This study found that most of SCFHs knew about the washing of hands for 1 min using liquid and cleanser before touching food, which coincides with the study done in Iran [ 39 ]. The washing of hands with soap and water could reduce contamination of hands, cooking utensils, and cooking preparation surfaces leading to a substantive reduction of the risk of FBDs. Our finding does not corroborate with finding from a study done in Malaysia where a vast majority of SCFHs were knowledgeable of the 4th WHO Five Keys to Safer Food to keep the meal at healthy temperatures [ 20 ]. In our study, the SCFHs wrongly answered that fresh meat should be bestowed at any place in the fridge once it is cool. This misapplication of temperature could result in contamination and possibly proliferating of microbes in food. The reason is that appropriate temperatures can significantly lessen the risk at which foods will deteriorate, thereby preventing FBDs; hence for safety, foods must be held at an appropriate temperature sufficient to slow down the growth of microorganisms or kill microbes.

Attitude is one of the key elements that influence food safety and the practice and lessen the recurrence of food-related illnesses [ 51 ]. This study showed that most of SCFHs had a good attitude toward food safety. It means they understood their roles in food safety which was transmitted into attitude because they possibly serve as a vector for infectious pathogens which lead to food contamination. This agrees with studies conducted in Ghana and Haiti [ 48 , 55 ], but differs from a study done in Malaysia [ 36 ], where the majority of SCFHs had a poor attitude toward food safety. Possibly these could be due to the variances in socio-demographic characteristics, study population, and the study settings. These attitudinal variations could also be due to public reputation preference. Our study showed that visual checking was one of the key ways of differentiating healthy food from rotten ones, which concurs with a study conducted in Iran [ 39 ]. This finding is disturbing because the process of identifying food contamination cannot be performed by visual checking, since pathogens or toxins might be present in those foods without necessarily affecting SCFHs’ sensory aspects (smell, colour, or taste); therefore, food handlers who rely on visual checking for the identification of food contamination might expose consumers to an increased risk of contracting FBDs [ 39 , 56 ]. Therefore, the regulatory authorities must ensure that all SCFHs are trained professionally and certified.

The present study revealed a vast majority of SCFHs agreed that putting uncooked and prepared meal separating prevent cross-contamination, which corresponds to a study done in Haiti [ 55 ]. This act of putting fresh foods separating from cooked food could help prevent cross-contamination, which in turn may prevent infections from happening and halt FBDs. This is one of the highly endorsed public health measures to prevent cross-contamination [ 57 ]. This study found that almost all of SCFHs agreed that they coughed or sneezed into their elbows if a towel or paper is not available. Coughing and sneezing into the elbow or covering coughs and sneezes, and immediately washing the hands, could help to avert the spread of severe respiratory infections such as influenza and whooping cough. Our finding contradicts with other studies conducted in Malaysia and America; they reported that almost all respondents sneezed right away into their hands and never clean it [ 20 , 58 ]. This unpleasant attitude is harmful to the public since sneezing and coughing let out droplets of watery and perhaps transmittable microorganisms which can contaminate foods leading to FBDs.

Preservation of good sanitary behaviours is one of the goals for any food establishment, thereby its observance is vital to ensure safe meals for consumers [ 28 , 59 ]. The proportion of SCFHs in this current study with good hygiene practices of food safety corroborates with previous studies conducted in Saudi Arabia and Ghana [ 21 , 34 ]. This is an indication that SCFHs can be relied upon to act as the first-line responder to prevent several FBDs when they practice what they know. This would help reduce accidental contamination of foodstuffs due to improper management of cooking utensils and surroundings. Contradictory, in the present study, the scores obtained on the practices section were higher than hygiene practices of food safety reported in studies done in China and Nigeria [ 25 , 60 ]. The likely explanations of the difference reported could be as a result of the research population, the study cut-off used, the disparity in food safety courses, and differences in the law enforcement regimes. Our study revealed that the level of hygiene practices score was greater than the level of the attitude score attained by the SCFHs which corresponds to a study conducted in Malaysia [ 15 ]. The probable justification could be the SCFHs tend to provide responses they trust will create a good picture of their hygiene practices which account for the greater level score. The current study revealed that a vast majority of SCFHs washed their cooking utensils used to cook meals before using them for different meals, which is in line with a study done in Iran [ 39 ]. This act is acceptable because food handlers have been mostly identified as a significant vector for food contamination and responsible for FBDs [ 14 , 15 ]. Our study found that SCFHs practised wrongly by using similar kitchen cloth to clean shells and hands at the time which concurs with a study done in Malaysia [ 20 ]. The possible justification could be due to the non-compliance of the respondents to food safety training received. It could also be that they lack understandings of food safety education received. Hence, this displeasing practice may eventually result in contamination of hands and transfers of microorganisms to the consumers. This study showed that a vast majority of SCFHs cleaned fresh food that needs no cooking before consumption, which is in line with a study conducted in Malaysia [ 20 ]. This good hygiene practice is necessary to the elementary control of the spread of possibly FBDs.

Our study revealed a positive relationship between knowledge and the attitude of food safety which corresponds to earlier studies conducted in Malaysia, Iran, and Ghana [ 15 , 39 , 47 ]. Nevertheless, the strength of the correlation identified in the knowledge with the attitude scores of food safety was not strong, which implies that it is vital for the respective agency to monitor SCFH activities and enforce safety standards. Previous studies conducted in Malaysia and Iran found no significant relationship in the knowledge with the hygiene practices of food safety [ 20 , 39 ], which corresponds to our finding but contradicts with studies done in Malaysia and Ghana [ 15 , 47 ]. This result confirms the assertion that good knowledge does not affect the hygiene performance of food safety [ 61 ]. Hence, food handlers should be encouraged by food safety regulatory agencies to at least practise good hygiene irrespective of their levels of knowledge of food safety. In our study, no statistical association was found in the attitudes with the hygiene practice scores of food safety, which opposes earlier studies conducted in Malaysia, Iran, and Ghana [ 39 , 47 , 54 ]. These disparities could be due to their levels of knowledge of food safety and also possibly as a result of the kind of food safety training courses received. This present study found that registered SCFHs were more likely to have good food safety knowledge likened to unregistered SCFHs which is in line with earlier research in Lebanon [ 51 ] but differs in the study done in Malaysia [ 62 ]. The potential explanation is that maybe before SCFHs have been given their certification of registration, they probably have been taken through food safety training courses which provide them with adequate knowledge of food safety and offer them a good understanding of food poisoning, contamination, and hygiene. This shows the importance of registering food handlers who have successfully been through food safety training courses to acquire knowledge on food safety.

This study showed that the odds of good hygiene practices were higher among SCFHs who had secondary education likened to those with no formal education which is in line with a study conducted in Ethiopia [ 12 ]. In contrast to our findings, other studies conducted in Ethiopia and Ghana found SCFHs with primary education as more likely to have good hygiene practices of food safety likened to secondary education [ 27 , 34 ]. The possible reasons are because most food preparation skills, personal hygiene, and cleanliness are learned from friends, relatives, parents, and media but not necessarily from formal education. However, a lower level of education reduces awareness but the higher one gets educated the better the knowledge which affects their attitude and eventually may reflect into hygiene practices. It implies that food handlers should be encouraged to attain at least basic education before engaging into the cooking business, although it serves as the first sources of income for most uneducated people in the societies. Nevertheless, a study conducted in Ghana showed that regardless of educational background, the food safety actions of SCFHs remain an issue in many nations [ 48 ].

The present study showed that SCFHs who earned average monthly income above GHc1500 were more likely to have good hygiene practices compared to respondents who earned less than Ghc500. Our finding confirms a study conducted in Ethiopia and Jordan that found good hygiene practice among food handlers with higher monthly income than those with lower higher monthly income [ 27 , 63 ]. The possible justification is that SCFHs with high monthly income can afford to purchase items needed to establish themselves in hygienic environments and afford more employees to help in cleaning and waste treatment which could result in a reduction in food poisoning and cross-contamination. This means the high monthly income of food handlers determine their ways of hygiene practices, purchasing more cooking utensils for preparing different meals and managing their leftovers foods to prevent contamination.

The present study showed that registered SCFHs were in favour of good hygiene practices of food safety than the unregistered. The likely description is because of the food safety training courses they received before being registered as food handlers which provides them with an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of hygiene practices such as proper handling of food, personal cleanliness, and sanitation while preparing food. However, there is no research found relating registration of food handlers with hygiene practice scores; hence, the lack of the associated literature offers difficulties to compare our finding to collective results reasonably with concrete answered questions. Nonetheless, our finding shows the importance of registering food handlers after they have been through food safety training courses to encourage them to practise good hygiene.

This study found that SCFHs who have completed training courses on food safety were in favour of good hygiene practices of food safety likened to respondents who had not. Our finding asserts with previous studies done in Ethiopia, Malaysia, and Ghana [ 36 , 38 , 47 ]. The probable justification is that SCFHs who have completed food safety training courses had gained the talents and awareness necessary to handle food safely and sustain great ethics of self-cleanness and hygiene practices. Our finding affirms the assertion that training upsurges understanding of food safety which might reflect into hygiene practices [ 48 ]. Hence, a lack of or inadequate training of SCFHs on food safety may inadvertently result in poor hygiene practices, thereby encouraging food contamination [ 26 , 36 ]. This implies providing food safety training to food handles is important to keep consumers from food poisoning and other wellbeing dangers that could arise from eating unsafe food.

In this present study, it is significant to highpoint SCFHs’ knowledge, attitudes, and hygiene practices are unpredictable from the study conceded, though most of SCFHs properly responded by answering appropriately to related questions of WHO’s Five Keys to Safe Foods guidelines for food handlers. This theoretic-based assessment of the KAP method applied to assessed food handlers’ food safety KAP has some limitations. Firstly, the postulation that the received knowledge on food safety is translated into attitude is not entirely true. The existence of a social desirability bias could similarly have added to the discrepancy amid interview-responded KAP of SCFHs. Social desirability bias is the propensity of SCFHs to provide publically anticipated answers which will be regarded approvingly by people [ 64 ]. This proclivity has been shown by their descriptions and overrating socially anticipated KAP questions on food safety. Secondly, as we beforehand mentioned, the research assistants revealed their identities and the purpose of the study to the SCFHs; therefore, the SCFHs were mindful of the hygiene practices and the significance of observing them, but they remained keen to acknowledge their nonconformity and these could likely affect the self-reported hygiene practices. Thirdly, the unavailability of sufficient data from related studies in the district impedes an evaluative comparison of our findings to determine an improvement of food safety KAP among SCFHs; therefore, our findings ought to be interpreted with caution. However, due to the representative nature of the sample assessed, the findings of this study can be generalized to other SCFHs in the district. After all, it makes a substantial impact concerning food safety KAP in North Dayi District because it is the first study conducted in the district that presents an imperative foundation for design to increase food safety and hygiene practice in the district, region, and beyond.

Over half of the respondents had good levels of KAP of food safety. This study found a significant relationship in the knowledge and hygiene practice scores of food safety with SCFH registration. This shows the importance of strict enforcement of registration and certification of SCFHs by regulatory agencies as a means of protecting the consuming public. Therefore, the government agency through FDA should intensify the vitality of undertaking food safety training on WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Food by food handlers before being registered. Furthermore, the District Health Directorate should properly and effectively supervise food handlers engaging in cooking businesses to ensure they transmit the link between knowledge with the attitude of food safety into hygiene practice. Further studies should assess the kind of food safety training modules received and their impacts on the KAP of WHO’s Five Keys to Safer Foods as well as evaluating their hygiene practices with observational checklists.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to ethical consideration but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

World Health Organization WHO. WHO estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases: foodborne disease burden epidemiology reference group 2007-2015: World Health Organization; 2015.

Brandwagt D, van den Wijngaard C, Tulen AD, Mulder AC, Hofhuis A, Jacobs R, et al. Outbreak of Salmonella Bovismorbificans associated with the consumption of uncooked ham products, the Netherlands, 2016 to 2017. Eurosurveillance. 2018;23:317–35.

Google Scholar  

Navarro-Garcia F. Escherichia coli O104: H4 pathogenesis: an enteroaggregative E. coli/Shiga toxin-producing E. coli explosive cocktail of high virulence. Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli Other Shiga Toxin-Producing E coli. 2015;1:503–29.

Etter AJ, West AM, Burnett JL, Wu ST, Veenhuizen DR, Ogas RA, et al. Salmonella Heidelberg food isolates associated with a Salmonellosis outbreak have enhanced stress tolerance capabilities. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019;85:1–22.

WPSE, Netty D, Sangaran G. Paper review of factors, surveillance and burden of food borne disease outbreak in Malaysia. Malaysian J public Heal Med. 2013;13:98–105.

Monney I, Agyei D, Owusu W. Hygienic practices among food vendors in educational institutions in Ghana: the case of Konongo. Foods. 2013;2(3):282–94. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods2030282 .

Fan YX, Liu XM, Bao YD. Analysis of main risk factors causing foodborne diseases in food catering business. Zhonghua Yu Fang Yi Xue Za Zhi. 2011;45:543–6.

Cheng Y, Zhang Y, Ma J, Zhan S. Food safety knowledge, attitude and self-reported practice of secondary school students in Beijing, China: a cross-sectional study. PLoS One. 2017;12:1–13.

Saad M, See TP, Adil MAM. Hygiene practices of food handlers at Malaysian government institutions training centers. Procedia-Social Behav Sci. 2013;85:118–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.08.344 .

Abdalla MA, Suliman SE, Bakhiet AO. Food safety knowledge and practices of street foodvendors in Atbara City (Naher Elneel State Sudan). African J Biotechnol. 2009;8:6967–71.

Ayeh-Kumi PF, Quarcoo S, Kwakye-Nuako G, Kretchy JP, Osafo-Kantanka A, Mortu S. Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among food vendors in Accra, Ghana. J Trop Med Parasitol. 2009;32:1–8.

Dagne H, Raju RP, Andualem Z, Hagos T, Addis K. Food safety practice and its associated factors among mothers in Debarq Town, Northwest Ethiopia: community-based cross-sectional study. Biomed Res Int. 2019;1:1–9.

Kuchenmüller T, Hird S, Stein C, Kramarz P, Nanda A, Havelaar AH. Estimating the global burden of foodborne diseases-a collaborative effort. Eurosurveillance. 2009;14:1–13.

Ayaz WO, Priyadarshini A, Jaiswal AK. Food safety knowledge and practices among Saudi mothers. Foods. 2018;7(12):193–208. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods7120193 .

Sani NA, Siow ON. Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers on food safety in food service operations at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Food Control. 2014;37:210–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.09.036 .

Oridota SE, Ochulo NF, Akanmu ON, Olajide TO, Soriyan OO. Food hygiene and safety practices of food handlers and its determinants in Lagos State. J Med Res Pract. 2014;3:37–41.

Chukuezi CO. Food safety and hyienic practices of street food vendors in Owerri, Nigeria. Stud Sociol Sci. 2010;1:50–7.

Dun-Dery EJ, Addo HO. Food hygiene awareness, processing and practice among street food vendors in Ghana. Food Public Heal. 2016;6:65–74.

Tefera T, Mebrie G. Prevalence and predictors of intestinal parasites among food handlers in Yebu town, southwest Ethiopia. PLoS One. 2014;9:1–13.

Soon JM, Wahab IRA, Hamdan RH, Jamaludin MH. Structural equation modelling of food safety knowledge, attitude and practices among consumers in Malaysia. PLoS One. 2020;15:1–12.

Sharif L, Al-Malki T. Knowledge, attitude and practice of Taif University students on food poisoning. Food Control. 2010;21(1):55–60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2009.03.015 .

Kim J, Cho Y. Convergence evaluating food safety knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding food handler. J Korea Converg Soc. 2019;10:73–8.

Isoni Auad L, Cortez Ginani V, Stedefeldt E, Yoshio Nakano E, Costa Santos Nunes A, Puppin Zandonadi R. Food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Brazilian food truck food handlers. Nutrients. 2019;11(8):1784–803. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081784 .

Zhao Y, Yu X, Xiao Y, Cai Z, Luo X, Zhang F. Netizens’ food safety knowledge, attitude, behaviors, and demand for science popularization by WeMedia. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020;17(3):730–40. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17030730 .

Ma L, Chen H, Yan H, Wu L, Zhang W. Food safety knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of street food vendors and consumers in Handan, a third tier city in China. BMC Public Health. 2019;19(1):1128–39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7475-9 .

Tabit FT, Teffo LA. An assessment of the food safety knowledge and attitudes of food handlers in hospitals. BMC Public Health. 2020;20:311–22.

Lema K, Abuhay N, Kindie W, Dagne H, Guadu T. Food hygiene practice and its determinants among food handlers at University of Gondar, Northwest Ethiopia, 2019. Int J Gen Med. 2020;13:1129–37. https://doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S262767 .

Yenealem DG, Yallew WW, Abdulmajid S. Food safety practice and associated factors among meat handlers in Gondar town: a cross-sectional study. J Environ Public Health. 2020;1:1–7.

Adane M, Teka B, Gismu Y, Halefom G, Ademe M. Food hygiene and safety measures among food handlers in street food shops and food establishments of Dessie town, Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study. PLoS One. 2018;13:1–13.

Ababio PF, Lovatt P. A review on food safety and food hygiene studies in Ghana. Food Control. 2015;47:92–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2014.06.041 .

Yeleliere E, Cobbina SJ, Abubakari ZI. Review of microbial food contamination and food hygiene in selected capital cities of Ghana. Cogent Food Agric. 2017;3:1–12.

Ghana Standard Authority GSA. Personal communication with standard documentation department. 2013.

Sarkodie NA, Bempong EK, Tetteh ON, Saaka AC, Moses GK. Assessing the level of hygienic practices among street food vendors in Sunyani township. Pakistan J Nutr. 2014;13(10):610–5. https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2014.610.615 .

Odonkor ST, Kurantin N, Sallar AM. Food safety practices among postnatal mothers in Western Ghana. Int J Food Sci. 2020;1:1–10.

Monney I, Agyei D, Ewoenam BS, Priscilla C, Nyaw S. Food hygiene and safety practices among street food vendors: an assessment of compliance, institutional and legislative framework in Ghana. Food public Heal. 2014;4:306–15.

Rahman M, Arif MT, Bakar K, bt Tambi Z. Food safety knowledge, attitude and hygiene practices among the street food vendors in Northern Kuching city, Sarawak. Borneo Sci. 2012;31:95–103.

World Health Organization WHO. Five Keys to Safer Food Manual; Department of Food Safety, Zoonoses and Foodborne Disease. 2006; www.who.int/entity/foodsafety/ .

Azanaw J, Gebrehiwot M, Dagne H. Factors associated with food safety practices among food handlers: facility-based cross-sectional study. BMC Res Notes. 2019;12(1):683–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-019-4702-5 .

Fariba R, Gholamreza JK, Saharnaz N, Ehsan H, Masoud Y. Knowledge, attitude, and practice among food handlers of semi-industrial catering: a cross sectional study at one of the governmental organization in Tehran. J Environ Heal Sci Eng. 2018;16(2):249–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40201-018-0312-8 .

Ghana Statistical Service GSS. Population and housing census 2010 district and analytical report. 2010.

GHS GHS. Annual report, Ghana Health Service: GHS; 2020.

Cochran WG. Sampling technique. Third edit. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1977.

Byrd-Bredbenner C, Berning J, Martin-Biggers J, Quick V. Food safety in home kitchens: a synthesis of the literature. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2013;10(9):4060–85. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10094060 .

Hashanuzzaman M, Bhowmik S, Rahman MS, Zakaria MUMA, Voumik LC, Mamun A-A. Assessment of food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of fish farmers and restaurants food handlers in Bangladesh. Heliyon. 2020;6:1–8.

Osaili TM, Jamous DOA, Obeidat BA, Bawadi HA, Tayyem RF, Subih HS. Food safety knowledge among food workers in restaurants in Jordan. Food Control. 2013;31(1):145–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.09.037 .

Soares LS, Almeida RCC, Cerqueira ES, Carvalho JS, Nunes IL. Knowledge, attitudes and practices in food safety and the presence of coagulase-positive staphylococci on hands of food handlers in the schools of Camaçari, Brazil. Food Control. 2012;27(1):206–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.03.016 .

Amegah KE, Addo HO, Ashinyo ME, Fiagbe L, Akpanya S, Akoriyea SK, et al. Determinants of hand hygiene practice at critical times among food handlers in educational institutions of the Sagnarigu municipality of Ghana: a cross-sectional study. Environ Health Insights. 2020;14:1–10.

Akabanda F, Hlortsi EH, Owusu-Kwarteng J. Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of institutional food-handlers in Ghana. BMC Public Health. 2017;17(1):40–9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-016-3986-9 .

Apanga S, Addah J, Sey DR. Food safety knowledge and practice of street food vendors in rural Northern Ghana. Food Public Heal. 2014;4:99–103.

Adesokan HK, Akinseye VO, Adesokan GA. Food safety training is associated with improved knowledge and behaviours among foodservice establishments’ workers. Int J Food Sci. 2015;1:1–8.

Bou-Mitri C, Mahmoud D, El Gerges N, Jaoude MA. Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in Lebanese hospitals: a cross-sectional study. Food Control. 2018;94:78–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2018.06.032 .

Derso T, Tariku A, Ambaw F, Alemenhew M, Biks GA, Nega A. Socio-demographic factors and availability of piped fountains affect food hygiene practice of food handlers in Bahir Dar Town, northwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study. BMC Res Notes. 2017;10(1):628–35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-017-2965-2 .

Al RA. On the contribution of student experience survey regarding quality management in higher education: an institutional study in Saudi Arabia. J Serv Sci Manag. 2010;3:464–9.

Siau AMF, Son R, Mohhiddin O, Toh PS, Chai LC. Food court hygiene assessment and food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in Putrajaya. Int Food Res J. 2015;22:1843–54.

Samapundo S, Climat R, Xhaferi R, Devlieghere F. Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of street food vendors and consumers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Food Control. 2015;50:457–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2014.09.010 .

Murray R, Glass-Kaastra S, Gardhouse C, Marshall B, Ciampa N, Franklin K, et al. Canadian consumer food safety practices and knowledge: foodbook study. J Food Prot. 2017;80(10):1711–8. https://doi.org/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-17-108 .

Zhang H, Lu L, Liang J, Huang Q. Knowledge, attitude and practices of food safety amongst food handlers in the coastal resort of Guangdong, China. Food Control. 2015;47:457–61.

Berry TD, Fournier AK. Examining university students’ sneezing and coughing etiquette. Am J Infect Control. 2014;42(12):1317–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2014.09.003 .

Khanal G, Poudel S. Factors associated with meat safety knowledge and practices among butchers of Ratnanagar municipality, Chitwan, Nepal: a cross-sectional study. Asia Pacific J Public Heal. 2017;29(8):683–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539517743850 .

Faremi FA, Olatubi MI, Nnabuife GC. Food safety and hygiene practices among food vendors in a Tertiary Educational Institution in South Western Nigeria. Eur J Nutr Food Saf. 2018;8(2):59–70. https://doi.org/10.9734/EJNFS/2018/39368 .

Fadaei A. Assessment of knowledge, attitudes and practices of food workers about food hygiene in Shahrekord restaurants, Iran. World Appl Sci J. 2015;33:1113–7.

Radu S, Othman M, Toh PS, Chai LC. Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practices concerning food safety among restaurant workers in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Food Sci Qual Manag. 2014;32:20–7.

Osaili TM, Al-Nabulsi AA, Krasneh HDA. Food safety knowledge among foodservice staff at the universities in Jordan. Food Control. 2018;89:167–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2018.02.011 .

Jespersen L, MacLaurin T, Vlerick P. Development and validation of a scale to capture social desirability in food safety culture. Food Control. 2017;82:42–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2017.06.010 .

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Nantong University, 9 Seyuan Road, Nantong, Jiangsu, China

Lawrence Sena Tuglo, Zhongqin Pan & Minjie Chu

Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Ghana

Percival Delali Agordoh

North Dayi District Health Directorate, Volta Region, Ghana Health Service, Accra, Ghana

David Tekpor & Gabriel Agbanyo

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

MC and PDA conceived and designed the study. LST drafted the manuscript. DT and GA coordinated the data collection. ZP participated in the data collection and contributed to data analysis and interpretation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Minjie Chu .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Approval was sought from Ghana Health Service, North Dayi District Health Directorate, with the identity (NDDHD/GR/002/20) 15/07/2020. Written informed permission was sought, and the research method was plainly explained to the respondents in their native dialects (English, Ewe, or Twi).

Consent for publication

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Additional file 1., rights and permissions.

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Tuglo, L.S., Agordoh, P.D., Tekpor, D. et al. Food safety knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices of street-cooked food handlers in North Dayi District, Ghana. Environ Health Prev Med 26 , 54 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12199-021-00975-9

Download citation

Received : 22 February 2021

Accepted : 19 April 2021

Published : 03 May 2021

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12199-021-00975-9

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Food safety
  • Street-cooked food handlers

Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine

ISSN: 1347-4715

importance of food safety research paper

Navigating food safety: insights, innovations, and consumer trends in changing food patterns

  • Open access
  • Published: 07 February 2024

Cite this article

You have full access to this open access article

  • Marion Rukavina 1  

152 Accesses

Explore all metrics

Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.

Foodborne pathogens pose a significant threat to public health worldwide, leading to a considerable economic burden and contributing to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In the European Union (EU), last year’s One Health zoonoses Footnote 1 report, jointly published by the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, has revealed alarming trends in foodborne outbreaks and illnesses in the EU and neighboring countries. In 2022, a total of 5,763 outbreaks – an increase of 40% – affected 48,605 individuals. Most notably, there were 64 deaths attributed to foodborne outbreaks, marking the highest number in the past decade.

1 Addressing food safety challenges

In this context, a comprehensive understanding of factors affecting food safety, bacterial contamination during food processing, consumer preferences, and innovative approaches to enhance food stability is of utmost importance. In this issue, a collection of studies sheds light on these critical aspects, offering valuable insights into mitigating the risks associated with foodborne pathogens and enhancing food safety across various domains.

With the global surge in seafood consumption, concerns regarding bacterial infections, particularly involving Salmonella spp ., have grown. Majeed et al. highlight the significance of Salmonella serovars Typhimurium and Enteritidis as foodborne pathogens in seafood. Salmonella’s pathogenicity arises from its ability to express various virulence factors, enabling its survival in aquatic environments and the human digestive system. Furthermore, the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in Salmonella strains from aquatic food poses a significant challenge to the seafood industry. This review underscores the importance of comprehensive surveillance, proper aquaculture, hygiene practices, and stringent food safety regulations to combat Salmonella contamination in aquatic foods, safeguarding public health.

2 Assessing bacterial contamination in abattoirs

In the pursuit of safer food production and enhanced food safety, understanding bacterial contamination during the slaughter process in abattoirs is paramount. Fürstenberg et al. conducted a study comparing two sampling methods, the agar contact method and the wet-dry double swabbing method, to assess their effectiveness in evaluating bacterial contamination on pig carcasses in slaughterhouses. This research emphasizes the importance of selecting the most suitable sampling method when assessing bacterial contamination during the slaughter process, as both methods proved valuable, each with its unique strengths and weaknesses. Such insights are vital for maintaining robust food safety practices within the meat processing industry.

Moreover, Langkabel et al. conducted a study comparing three scalding techniques in broiler abattoirs and their effect on bacterial contamination. They found that the conventional immersion scalder with hot scalding water and the AeroScalder® that uses hot, humid, saturated air demonstrated similar efficacy in reducing bacterial counts, achieving a 0.7 log reduction after scalding. However, the most substantial reductions in bacterial counts in all abattoirs were observed after the plucking steps. The findings underscore the importance of post-plucking steps during poultry processing for controlling bacterial contamination.

Verlindo et al.‘s study centers on enhancing the stability of sodium nitrite, a critical food additive in mortadella formulations, using microencapsulation techniques. They tested four different compositions incorporating sodium nitrite with porcine collagen, gum arabic, and maltodextrin as wall materials. When applied to mortadella, these microencapsulated materials significantly improved the stability of sodium nitrite, extending its effectiveness in preserving the product’s quality and safety during a 60-day storage period at room temperature. This research highlights the potential of sodium nitrite capsules in enhancing the physicochemical and microbiological stability of mortadella, making it valuable for industrial applications.

3 Microbiological status of vegan meat alternatives

The increased consumption of plant-based products, accompanied by a decline in meat consumption, is an ongoing consumer trend driven by various factors, including health, ethical, and ecological considerations. Particularly noteworthy is the rising popularity of vegan and vegetarian meat analogues designed to replicate the taste and texture of traditional meat products. In Europe, the average meat consumption stands at 69 kg per capita per year Footnote 2 . Concurrently, the sales of vegan and vegetarian meat analogues surged to 458.2 million Euros in 2021, marking a remarkable 62.2% increase between 2019 and 2021 Footnote 3 . Amidst this changing dietary landscape, the study by Kabisch et al. in this issue examines the microbiological status of vegan ground meat products from German retail stores, shedding light on potential safety concerns associated with these popular alternatives.

A short communication by Sicca et al. explores organic food markets in Brazil, the U.S., and Europe, revealing varying consolidation levels and growth potential driven by distinct factors. Key findings reveal health and nutrition as central drivers in Brazil, while environmental and animal welfare concerns prevail in the U.S. and in Europe. Common challenges include supporting local businesses and addressing high prices. Brazil faces obstacles such as limited product availability and challenges in supplying desired items, potentially leading to supply-demand imbalances and elevated prices. The study underscores untapped potential in Brazil’s organic food market, offering insights for global stakeholders to tailor strategies and capitalize on latent opportunities in these markets.

Consumer preferences for genetically modified (GM), functional, and organic foods in developing countries are the focus of Khalili et al.‘s review. Their study, based on articles published until 2023, identifies factors influencing consumers’ willingness to pay (WTP). For GM foods, product information and labels play a crucial role. Health claims, awareness, variety, and trust impact WTP for functional foods. Factors affecting WTP for organic foods include consumer satisfaction, labels, price, location, and demographics. Better knowledge about GM food empowers consumers to make informed choices. The study emphasizes the significance of these factors for food producers and stakeholders, as they significantly influence consumers’ WTP.

4 Conclusion

In this issue, a collection of studies provides valuable insights into various aspects of food safety, bacterial contamination, consumer preferences, and innovative approaches to enhance microbial stability in food products. In an era marked by evolving dietary patterns and growing concerns over foodborne pathogens, these findings contribute to a deeper understanding of these critical areas, offering a path towards safer, more resilient food systems.

https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8442 . Accessed 29 January 2024

OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019–2028

https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2022/05/PD22_N025_42.html . Accessed 29.012024

Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Press and Public Relations, Federal Office of Consumer Protection and Food Safety, Gerichtstraße 49, Berlin, Germany

Marion Rukavina

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marion Rukavina .

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Rukavina, M. Navigating food safety: insights, innovations, and consumer trends in changing food patterns. J Consum Prot Food Saf (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-024-01501-z

Download citation

Published : 07 February 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s00003-024-01501-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Find a journal
  • Publish with us
  • Track your research

importance of food safety research paper

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

  • Human Nutrition and Food Safety

Research Publications (Food Safety)

This page tracks research articles published in national and international peer-reviewed journals. Recent articles are available ahead of print and searchable by Journal, Article Title, and Category. Research publications are tracked across six categories: Bacterial Pathogens, Chemical Contaminants, Natural Toxins, Parasites, Produce Safety, and Viruses. Articles produced by USDA Grant Funding Agencies (requires login) and FDA Grant Funding Agencies (requires login) are also tracked in Scopus.

Displaying 1 - 25 of 41145

Biochemical response of the endogeic earthworm (balanteodrilus extremus) exposed to tropical soils.

  • Thu, 02/15/2024 - 04:00
  • Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

This work evaluated the biochemical responses of the endogeic earthworm Balanteodrilus extremus exposed for 14 and 48 days (d) to soils collected from two tropical agricultural systems: maize-sorghum (MS) and soybean-sorghum (SS). A soil without agricultural management (WAM) and the use of pesticides was selected as a reference. The presence of organochlorine (OC) and organophosphate (OP) pesticide residues was quantified in MS and SS soils.

  • Chemical contaminants
  • Pesticide residues

Trace Metals in the Mussel Mytilus californianus from the West Coast of Baja California, Mexico

This study assessed the concentrations of trace metals in tissues of Mytilus californianus from the west coast of Baja California, Mexico, during the cold and warm seasons. The concentrations of silver, cadmium, copper and zinc in mussel tissues were measured using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry. Silver concentrations ranged from 0.03 to 0.48 µg/g dry weight (d.w.) with significantly higher values registered at sites close to densely populated areas.

  • Heavy Metals

Poultry Food Assess Risk Model for Salmonella and Chicken Gizzards: III. Dose Consumed Step

  • Journal of Food Protection

The Dose Consumed step of the Poultry Food Assess Risk Model (PFARM) for  Salmonella  and chicken gizzards was presented and compared to the Exposure Assessment step of Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment (QMRA).

  • Bacterial pathogens

Lactiplantibacillus plantarum postbiotic protects against Salmonella infection in broilers via modulating NLRP3 inflammasome and gut microbiota

  • Poultry Science

Salmonella  infection is a major concern in poultry production which poses potential risks to food safety. Our previous study confirmed that  Lactiplantibacillus plantarum  ( LP ) postbiotic exhibited a strong antibacterial capacity on  Salmonella  in vitro. This study aimed to investigate the beneficial effects and underlying mechanism of LP postbiotic on  Salmonella -challenged broilers.

Identification and characterization of lettuce cultivars with high inhibitory activity against the human pathogen Escherichia coli O157:H7: Toward a plant-intrinsic hurdle approach to microbial safety

  • Wed, 02/14/2024 - 04:00
  • Postharvest Biology and Technology

Foodborne illness linked to fruit and vegetables poses a major challenge to public health and horticulture production. Processed lettuce has been implicated in recurrent outbreaks of pathogenic Shiga toxin-producing  Escherichia coli  (STEC) infection. We hypothesized that plant defenses elicited by mechanical injury may effect STEC inhibition in cut leaves.

  • Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

Antagonistic activity of Phaeobacter piscinae against the emerging fish pathogen Vibrio crassostreae in aquaculture feed algae

  • Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Ahead of Print. Aquaculture provides a rich resource of high-quality protein; however, the production is challenged by emerging pathogens such as  Vibrio crassostreae . While probiotic bacteria have been proposed as a sustainable solution to reduce pathogen load in aquaculture, their application requires a comprehensive assessment across the aquaculture food chain.

Investigating the effect of phage on reducing Salmonella spp. in poultry meat: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

  • Food Control

Salmonella  represents a notable food-borne health threat in the European Union, primarily transmitted through poultry meat. Consequently, there is an augmented regulatory emphasis on poultry safety. However, chemical treatments can degrade meat's organoleptic quality, necessitating innovative contamination-reduction strategies. A promising approach for the biological control of food-borne diseases is lytic bacteriophages.

Hepatitis E virus causes apoptosis of ovarian cells in hens and resulting in a decrease in egg production

Previous studies have shown that avian hepatitis E virus ( HEV ) decreases egg production by 10-40% in laying hens, but have not fully elucidated the mechanism of there. In this study, we evaluated the replication of avian HEV in the ovaries of laying hens and the mechanism underlying the decrease in egg production. Forty 150-days-old commercial laying hens were randomly divided into 2 groups of 20 hens each.

Method development of multi pesticide residue analysis in country beans collected from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and their dietary risk assessment

  • Food Chemistry

The aim of the study was to develop a modified QuEChERS method coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for the simultaneous determination of five multi-class pesticides in country beans collected from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Pesticides were extracted using ACN, and to minimize the co-extraction matrix, optimized d-SPE cleanup was done using sorbents (GCB, PSA, and C18).

Specific Antimicrobial Activities Revealed by Comparative Evaluation of Selected Gemmotherapy Extracts

  • Antibiotics

Nowadays, unprecedented health challenges are urging novel solutions to address antimicrobial resistance as multidrug-resistant strains of bacteria, yeasts and moulds are emerging. Such microorganisms can cause food and feed spoilage, food poisoning and even more severe diseases, resulting in human death. In order to overcome this phenomenon, it is essential to identify novel antimicrobials that are naturally occurring, biologically effective and increasingly safe for human use.

  • Bacillus cereus
  • Listeria monocytogenes
  • Staphylococcus aureus

Effect of inoculation (pre‐ vs. post‐grinding) of black pepper on decimal reduction time of Salmonella spp. and Enterococcus faecium NRRL B‐2354

  • Journal of Food Safety

Effect of inoculation protocol on thermal inactivation of Salmonella spp. Abstract The laboratory inoculation techniques should ideally mimic the real‐life environment to reliably estimate the decimal reduction time (D‐value) of bacteria for process validation. This study aims at investigating the influence of the inoculation method on the D‐value of Salmonella in black pepper powder.

Characterization and mechanism of simultaneous degradation of aflatoxin B1 and zearalenone by an edible fungus of Agrocybe cylindracea GC-Ac2

  • Tue, 02/13/2024 - 04:00
  • Frontiers in Microbiology

Contamination with multiple mycotoxins is a major issue for global food safety and trade. This study focused on the degradation of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and zearalenone (ZEN) by 8 types of edible fungi belonging to 6 species, inclulding Agaricus bisporus, Agrocybe cylindracea, Cyclocybe cylindracea, Cyclocybe aegerita, Hypsizygus marmoreus and Lentinula edodes. Among these fungi, Agrocybe cylindracea strain GC-Ac2 was shown to be the most efficient in the degradation of AFB1 and ZEN.

  • Natural toxins

Multi-omics revealed rumen microbiota metabolism and host immune regulation in Tibetan sheep of different ages

The rumen microbiota and metabolites play an important role in energy metabolism and immune regulation of the host. However, the regulatory mechanism of rumen microbiota and metabolite interactions with host on Tibetan sheep’s plateau adaptability is still unclear. We analyzed the ruminal microbiome and metabolome, host transcriptome and serum metabolome characteristics of Tibetan sheep at different ages.

Geographical and temporal distribution of multidrug-resistant Salmonella Infantis in Europe and the Americas

Recently emerged S. Infantis strains carrying resistance to several commonly used antimicrobials have been reported from different parts of the globe, causing human cases of salmonellosis and with occurrence reported predominantly in broiler chickens. Here, we performed phylogenetic and genetic clustering analyses to describe the population structure of 417 S. Infantis originating from multiple European countries and the Americas collected between 1985 and 2019.

The Influence of Long-Term Storage on the Epiphytic Microbiome of Postharvest Apples and on Penicillium expansum Occurrence and Patulin Accumulation

Patulin is a secondary metabolite primarily synthesized by the fungus Penicillium expansum, which is responsible for blue mold disease on apples. The latter are highly susceptible to fungal infection in the postharvest stages. Apples destined to produce compotes are processed throughout the year, which implies that long periods of storage are required under controlled atmospheres. P.

Seasonal Variation and Risk Assessment of Exposure to Aflatoxin M1 in Milk, Yoghurt, and Cheese Samples from Ilam and Lorestan Provinces of Iran

  • Journal of Food Composition and Analysis

The current study aimed to evaluate aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) contamination in a total number of 240 samples collected during four consecutive seasons (from January to November 2022) from two western Iranian provinces (Ilam and Lorestan). AFM1 was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with a fluorescence detector after the toxin extraction with immunoaffinity columns. The results showed 100% of AFM1 contamination in all the surveyed matrices.

Whole genome sequencing of nine Vibrio parahaemolyticus strains encoding (Pir) toxin-like genes from shrimp cultures in northern Peru using Oxford Nanopore technology

  • Microbiology Resource Announcements

Microbiology Resource Announcements, Ahead of Print. Nine Peruvian isolates of  Vibrio parahaemolyticus  were characterized through sequencing, revealing the presence of simple sequence repeat, Pir toxin-like genes, and genes associated with antibiotic resistance, toxic components, and transposable elements. These findings expand our understanding of the genetic diversity, disease resistance, and virulence in cultivated shrimp populations in Peru.

Kinetic and proteomic studies in milk show distinct patterns among major Listeria monocytogenes clones

  • Mon, 02/12/2024 - 04:00
  • Microbes and Infection

Listeria monocytogenes , a contaminant of raw milk, includes hypervirulent clonal complexes (CC) like CC1, CC4, and CC6, highly overrepresented in dairy products when compared to other food types. Whether their higher prevalence in dairy products is the consequence of a growth advantage in this food remains unknown. We examined growth kinetics of five  L.

Effective removal of aflatoxin B 1 using modified attapulgite loaded with bacillomycin D from stored peanut kernels

  • Journal of Stored Products Research

Peanut kernels could be easily contaminated by  Aspergillus flavus  and its mycotoxins. This not only reduced their nutritional and economic value, but also posed a serious threat to human health. In this study, acid-modified attapulgite loaded with bacillomycin D (H-ATP-BD) was used for aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) removal in peanut kernels contaminated with  A. flavus  spores. During storage, H-ATP-BD treatment inhibited mildew of peanut kernels.

Identifying a list of Salmonella serotypes of concern to target for reducing risk of salmonellosis

There is an increasing awareness in the field of Salmonella epidemiology that focusing control efforts on those serotypes which cause severe human health outcomes, as opposed to broadly targeting all Salmonella, will likely lead to the greatest advances in decreasing the incidence of salmonellosis. Yet, little guidance exists to support validated, scientific selection of target serotypes.

Antimicrobial effects of Cinnamomum verum essential oil against Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus in mulberry and carrot juices

  • Sun, 02/11/2024 - 04:00
  • International Journal of Food Science & Technology

The essential oil is extracted from Cinnamomum verum through Clevenger. The antimicrobial activities of essential oils were researched in this study. CEO exhibited higher antibacterial effects against S. aureus and E. faecalis. Cytoplasmic membrane permeability plays a vital role in the CEO bactericidal action. Summary In developing countries, fresh fruit juices are prepared and sold without ongoing assessment of the quality and safety of mulberry and carrot juices.

Disruption of a glycosyl transferase family 17 protein alters cadmium accumulation and resistance in rice (Oryza sativa)

  • Plant and Soil

Aims Cadmium (Cd) is absorbed by plants into the food chain as a trace pollutant harmful to humans. The rice ( Oryza sativa . L) glycosyltransferases (OsGTs) family is a large protein family with over hundreds of members, however, prior studies have failed to identify which OsGTs has a role in plants' response to Cd toxicity.

Processing factors of pesticide residues in cereal grain fractions

This study examined the distribution of 37 pesticide residues in different cereal grains (rye, wheat, oat, and barley) and their fractions, including flour, bran, and feed bran. The grains used in the study were sprayed in the field before processing to provide a more accurate representation of the fate of pesticide residues in these fractions. Pesticides were extracted using the QuEChERS method and analyzed by GC-MS/MS and LC-MS/MS.

Prioritisation of pesticides and target organ systems for dietary cumulative risk assessment based on the 2019–2021 monitoring cycle

  • Sat, 02/10/2024 - 04:00
  • EFSA Journal

Abstract Aiming at accelerating the implementation of cumulative risk assessment to pesticide residues, this report describes a two‐step prioritisation analysis, on individual pesticides and on target organ systems, that allows to identify (i) low‐priority substances expected to have a marginal contribution to cumulative risk, and (ii) high priority organ systems to be addressed in future cumulative risk assessments.

Molecular characterization of Campylobacter spp . isolates obtained from commercial broilers and native chickens in Southern Thailand using whole genome sequencing

Chickens are the primary reservoirs of  Campylobacter  spp., mainly  C. jejuni  and  C. coli , that cause human bacterial gastrointestinal infections. However, genomic characteristics and antimicrobial resistance of  Campylobacter  spp. in low- to middle-income countries need more comprehensive exploration. This study aimed to characterize 21  C. jejuni  and 5  C.

  • Campylobacter
  • Research article
  • Open access
  • Published: 08 October 2019

Students’ perceptions of a food safety and quality e-learning course: a CASE study for a MSC in food consumption

  • Paula Vaz-Fernandes   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1111-0339 1 , 2 &
  • Sandra Caeiro 1 , 3  

International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education volume  16 , Article number:  37 ( 2019 ) Cite this article

34k Accesses

10 Citations

5 Altmetric

Metrics details

Life long training and education in food safety is a crucial issue in particular for professionals working in the field. At the same time there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of that training in particular when is given in e-learning. The purpose of this explorative work is to evaluate the Food Safety and Quality e-learning course within a Master program offered in the National Distance Learning University in Portugal. Following a case study methodology a mixed methods approached was used, based on an online questionnaire survey to students that enrolled the course, followed by a Focus Group Discussion to better discuss the weak points addressed by the students in the questionnaire. The questionnaire aimed to assess students perceptions about the course organization, recourses, assignments, acquired competences, change attitudes and behaviour and link with the professional activity Students who enrolled the course during 2016/17 and 2017/18 were surveyed in the fourth semester of the curricular year, in the period of development of the master thesis dissertation. In addition a quantitative analysis was conducted in the temporal distributions of messages published on the Moodle platform (learning analytics) to evaluate students’ interactions and engagement during the course.

This study has shown that overall, students are very satisfied with the course, however they suggested improvements that are needed considering the pedagogical model used and their availability to learn as students with full time jobs, most related with the food science. This explorative research aimed to contribute to the improvement of food safety and quality training based also on recent tools and recommendations within e-learning in science education.

Introduction

The food supply was “never so safe as today” at least in developed countries (Flynn et al., 2017 ). However, foodborne illness is still an important public health problem world wide and everyone in the world is at risk of this disease, whether in developing or developed countries (WHO, 2008 ).

wide and everyone in the world is at risk of this disease, whether in developing or developed countries (WHO, 2008 ). Although the improvements in water sanitation, hygiene, and the safety of the food supply have greatly reduced the number of deaths morbidity remains high (Scallan & Angulo, 2007 ). The consume of contaminated food is responsible for 600 million ill people/year. There are about 420,000 deaths, which occur among these annual victims and there are 125,000 deaths that occur with children under 5 years of age (WHO, 2015 ). Food safety is a serious component of sustainable development, and complications that occur in one country may put other countries at risk because the food globalization process has revealed a substantial impact on the food safety (Scott, 2003 ; FDA, 2009 ). Providentially, there are increasing governments’ involvement in monitoring and regulating the sector to guarantee food quality and decrease foodborne diseases (Zanin et al., 2017 ).

Food safety is essential to human nutrition and food security because poor nutrition and foodborne diseases frequently combine a vicious cycle of deterioration of health. Consequently, food safety must be methodically incorporated into policies and interventions to develop nutrition and food security. As the international community changes to the post–Millennium Development Goal stage with an emphasis on sustainable development goals, food safety is an essential element in improving global health and ensuring sustainable development. (WHO, 2013 ). Food safety is indeed an essential issue to address the Sustainable development goal n. 3 towards the insurance of healthy lives and promotion of well-being for all at all ages (UN, 2016 , 2019 ).

European legislation demands food safety preparation in all EU countries. All food commercial technicians are required to ensure that all their staff involved in food handling activities are appropriately trained and/or coached in food hygiene (EC, 2004 , Ovca et al., 2017 ). According to the European Commission (EC, 2012 ), the European education and training systems are insufficient in providing the right skills for employability and are not co-operating satisfactorily with business or employers to bring the learning experience closer to the reality of the working environments (EC, 2012 ).

The food safety risk assessment is a scientific field that is constantly advancing and, as such, a lot of educational programmes have been developed recently with a focus on keeping professionals up to date with suitable lifelong training programmes on different forms (Bosman et al., 2016 ). Many Programmes at European universities or other academic institutions provide specific programmes at Bachelor and Master’s levels, as well as doctoral education in food science, toxicology or other related areas that cover aspects of Food Safety and Food Risk Assessment (Kneifel, 2012 ). Nowadays, around 60 programmes in Europe formal education programmes and training) explicitly mention ‘Food Safety’ in their curriculum names (Bosman et al., 2016 ). Students that are already on their professional jobs related with food industry, search lifelong training on this field of food safety, because of the requirement in the Codex Alimentarius (WHO & FAO, 2009 ). Within this requirement on-going training in the field of food safety is necessary for all levels of employees and managers, as appropriate and adapted to their background level. Zanin et al. ( 2017 ), found in an integrative review, that the studies dealing with good manufacturing practices were conducted mainly in developing countries. Possibly, in countries where food safety regulation is more mature (e. g. Canada, USA, European Union countries), many of them with mandatory application of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point), system, the interest is greater in the application of management systems than the behavior of food handlers.

E-learning provides students with an educational alternative to face-to-face teaching, permitting students to proceed, at their own pace, and to identify their own personal course timeline while having at the same time full-time jobs (Azeiteiro et al., 2015 , Lee et al., 2019 ). E-learning also leads to positive learning outcomes, such as a high level of learning achievement and higher-order thinking abilities, because it allows for leaners to actively engage in learning anytime and anywhere (Bacelar-Nicolau et al., 2015 ; Lee et al., 2019 ). In 2000, universities, companies and associations were seriously exploring the use of online education in an effort to reach adult learners unable to leave their work places (Matter & McNiel, 2008 ) and willing to acquire new skills. There was a virtual explosion in the number of online offerings among universities worldwide (Moura et al., 2010 ).

Despite the advantages of learning, one important problem in e-learning is the higher dropout rate and learning barriers working students have to face in this regime (Bacelar-Nicolau et al., 2015 , 2012 , Kim et al., 2017 ). To overlap these barriers student’s engagement and motivation are essential (Lee et al., 2019 ). Learning motivation of students can be induced by multiple factors, including intrinsic and extrinsic factors. For example, the motivation for good grades is an extrinsic factor and the preference for challenge is an intrinsic motivation (Lin et al., 2001 ; Law et al., 2019 ). The virtual environment involves many forms of media and materials that stimulate students’ interest in learning and results in higher satisfaction (Phungsuk et al., 2017 ).

Student engagement is defined as the level of effort or interaction between the time or the learning resources that develop learning outcome. When students are engaged in their learning they can improve their critical thinking, problem-solving and grades, and also applied their acquired knowledge in their jobs (Lee et al., 2019 ).

Learning Analytics is a fast-growing area in the field of Education, resulting in the generation of knowledge about agents and educational contexts, from large amounts of data (Data Mining), digital technologies and the Internet in learning Enhanced Learning (Ferguson et al., 2012 ). Learning Analytics facilitates the analysis of student learning processes based on the dynamics of student and teacher participation in online contexts (notably in LMS - Learning Management System). The evolution of student learning, as well as the prevention of dropout and failure, are the areas where the influence of the Learning Analytics has more evidenced (Papamitsiou & Economides, 2014 ; Lacave et al., 2018 ).

Besides some studies to evaluate e-learning efficiency at sciences courses (e.g. Azeiteiro et al., 2015 , Bacelar-Nicolau et al., 2012 , 2015 , Moura et al., 2010 , 2014 ), there is a dearth of research about the efficiency and students satisfaction of e-learning courses about food safety, an up to date life long learning topic. Also there is a lack of clear direction as to how the higher education system is accommodating or not nowadays students’ needs (in terms of innovation tools and new pedagogies) in science learning (Bidarra & Rusman, 2017 ).

The aim of this research is to evaluate student’s satisfaction about the course organization, pedagogical resources, evaluation activities, acquired competences, relation with their professional activity and students’ engagement, after enrolling a Food Safety and Quality course place in a context of e-learning Master’s in Food Consumption Sciences programme offered by a national distance learning university, Universidade Aberta in Portugal.

Case study: the Universidade Aberta (the Portuguese open distance university) and the master degree in food sciences

Universidade Aberta (UAb) was created in 1988 and is the only Public Distance Learning higher education institution in Portugal. All educational offers at UAb are incorporated into the Bologna European Process and are taught via e-learning since 2008. UAb is a reference Higher Education European institution in the area of online and advanced e-learning and learning, using the most innovative information and communication technologies, and a prominent Virtual Pedagogical Model (Pereira et al., 2008 ). This online model is based on four main pillars: student-centred learning, flexibility, interaction and digital inclusion. The UAb was, a few years ago, awarded internationally by Prize of European Foundation for Quality in E-learning and certification of The UNIQUE Quality Label for the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in Higher Education, awarded with the 1st Level of Excellency of the European Foundation for Quality Management, and also awarded by the European Commission with the Diploma Supplement Label. UAb was also considered recently by a European Commission report as a key actor in the higher education system in Portugal and Europe (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2014 ; UAb, 2019a ).

The formal educational offer of UAb is organised according to the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS).

The Master’s Degree in Food Science at Universidade Aberta is a unique programme that offers distance education and advanced training in e-learning in the area of food science (Moura et al., 2010 ) and its main objectives are to enable participants to i) interact along the supply chain in areas such food processing, retailing and consumption activities; ii) play a role in activities that promotes attitudes and behaviours changes in order to gather healthy consumption patterns; and play a role in decision-making processes concerning food product development (UAb, 2019b ).

The Master programme is characterized by: i) strong motivation of students seeking a professional or intellectual updating; ii) independent, collaborative student-centered learning; iii) students are mainly in the labor market; iv) Flexibility is provided by the asynchronous model, without temporal imperatives and physical displacements; (v) training and accompanying students to enable them to use new technologies and work in networks; and vi) curricular structure designed to meet the students’ updating (Moura & Aires, 2012 ; Moura et al., 2014 ).

The curricular plan of the Master is divided in two semesters (in a total of 60 ECTS), defined as a period of twenty weeks each one, plus two more semesters for the preparation, orientation and presentation of an original dissertation which accounts for a further 60 ECTS Different learning strategies are developed from mainly individual work to more collaborative and cooperative learning where peer and teacher interaction becomes very important (Azeiteiro et al., 2015 ). This is achieved through the inclusion of a number of activities supervised by the teacher such as: surveys, quizzes, assignments and compulsory discussion groups.

The open source Moodle ( http://elearning.uab.pt/ ) is the course management systems used. Each course from the MSc in Food Science and Consumption is organised in a set of topics and each topic is associated with one learning activity.

A 2 weeks online bootcamp module is available to students before the beginning of the 1st semester, which is intended to familiarise the students with the virtual environment and the e-learning tools, as well as promoting the acquisition of online communication and online social skills (Pereira et al., 2008 ).

The Food Safety and Quality course tries to update the demands that the European and world market has for the actors in the food chain. This course is organised into a set of seven topics and developed into six learning activities (see Table  1 ).

In first place, it is promoted an ice breaker where students and lectures introduced themselves, then a dialogue is promoted about course objectives, structure and topics/activities to be developed, that are chronologically presented in a document (e-book) called “learning Contract” to all students.

In order to stimulate students to become involved with the course and with the e-activities, practical and real examples were given (as shown in Table 1 ). Compulsory individual and teamwork activities were included. Support materials available to the students in the virtual space include e-books, research papers, internet sites, slide presentations, videos, original teachers’ documents and regulations (including legislation) case studies, news from media and original research are used to bring the subject to life and to help students to link theory to their practice in a e-learning regime, as defended by Moura et al. ( 2010 , 2018 ).

Case study based on quantitative and qualitative approach according to a mixed method choice was used in this study (Saunders et al., 2007 ). Data collection was conducted through a student’s questionnaire survey, one focus group and learning analytics, during the school years of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. Topics 3 and 4 (natural food toxins and contaminants) were not considered on this research, since were taught by a different teacher and data was not available on these contents.

Online survey

All seventeen students who attended the course of Food Safety and Quality of the Master of Sciences in Food Consumption in the school year of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018, and who are still enrolled, developing the master thesis, were invited to answer an online questionnaire survey in order to evaluate the perceptions about the performance of the course. At the time of online survey, one student was not contactable by the University, therefore, he was not contacted to answer to the questionnaire. This survey was inspired on other research where e-learning courses were evaluated (e.g. Bacelar-Nicolau et al., 2009 , 2012 , 2015 , Oliveira et al., 2016 ). The questionnaire built on Google Forms was divided in three groups of questions: the first concerns to the students course satisfaction itself and is constituted by four sections: i) organization of the course; ii) resources and activities of the course; iii) program contents of course; and iv) acquired competences (see in Additional file  1 the questionnaire). The second group consisted of questions related to the teachers, and the third group consisted of issues relating the course with the professional activity of students. In total, there were 42 questions using a Likert scale of 1 to 5, where 1 corresponds to a total disagreement and 5 corresponds to a total agreement. Descriptive statistics of the Likert based questions were conducted. Frequency distributions were converted to percentages to provide a standardised way of comparing the categories. For the open-ended question a transcription and translation to English of the content were made. This question consisted in a space to comments and suggestions (appendix 1).

Also, there was sociodemographic questions: age, sex and professional activity and an open space to comments and suggestions (appendix 1). A questionnaire pre-test was conducted and, after making the necessary adjustments, a final total of 46 items was obtained. All the questionnaire was translate from Portuguese to English (see appendix 1).

Focus group discussion (FGD)

All the students’ population invited to answer the questionnaire were after invited to attend a videoconference meeting for a focus group interview to explore the perceptions towards weaknesses identified in the previously applied questionnaire (see in appendix 1 the focus group guide). The Zoom-Colibri videoconference software was used ( https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us ). Virtual focus group reduces the burden on participants by eliminating travel and minimizing preparation time (Rupert, et al., 2017 ). Focus group methodology employs an interviewing technique; is not a discussion, a problem solving session nor a decision making group (Paton, 1990 ; Krueger & Casey, 2015 ). The prime objective is to obtain accurate data on a limited range of specific issues and within a social context where people consider their own views in relation to others (Wilkinson, 1998 ; Robinson, 1999 ).

The meeting was scheduled through Doodle. A focus group discussion was conducted with three participants (17.6% of total students and 37.5% of the online survey respondents). The interview lasted 32 min and all participants provided informed consent for their interviews to be recorded (see guide in Appendix 2).

Responses from Food Group Discussion were transcribed and translate from Portuguese to English. Participants were codified as FG#1 (male), FG#2 (female), and FG#3 (female). Data were then coded sentence by sentence. Common themes, patterns and clusters were identified and organized systematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006 ; Huberman & Miles, 1994 ). Data were then grouped together into themes and sub-themes.

The limitations associated with questionnaires and group interviews, e.g. validity, reliability and generalizability, such as those associated with participant and observer error and bias (Saunders et al., 2007 ) were taken into account in the discussion of results, and when drawing conclusions.

Learning analytics (LA)

In order to evaluate the students’ interactions and engagement in the course and its link with the topics activities, all “posted messages” in the Moodle platform were collected and recorded by student code. The number of messages posted in the course of Quality and Food Safety were identified with day and year from academic year of 2016/2017 until 2017/2018. This posted messages are public messages and is an indicator of participant’s involvement, as active users (Coelho et al., 2015 ), so an important indicator of students learning process.

All students that enrol the course were approved in their respective academic years, so the approval rate was 100% and the final rankings varied between 10 and 20 scores (in a total of 20). The average rating was 16.4 ± 2.25 sd (standard deviation).

The questionnaire response rate was 47% ( n  = 8). The average age of the respondents was 40.3 years, 25% were male and 75% female; 37.5% were single and 62.5% were married or in union. All the respondents have full time jobs and most of the students’ professional activity is related with the food sciences (Table  2 ).

Organization of the course

All the parameters evaluated on the organization of the course had positive evaluation except the statement: “ The workload was adequate ” (Fig.  1 ). Here, the perception of respondents was 12.5% “somewhat disagree”. In contrast to this perception, the remaining 87.5% received agreement (75% of Somewhat Agree and 12.5% of Strongly Agree). It was expected that the pace of learning had the same evaluation as the workload, however, it obtained 87.5% of favourable evaluations (12.5% of strong agree that pace of learning was adequate and 75% of partially agree). Neutrality was verified in 25% of the students. There was no negative evaluation here. The clear and adequate objectives received a very good evaluation: 100% of Agreement (somewhat or strongly). The programme/contents of the course were evaluated very positively, with 75% of general agreement (37.5% of strong and 37.5% of partially agree), with 25% of participants taking a neutral position. Also, the contents of the course were well appreciated, receiving 75% of general agreement (37.5% of strongly and 37.5% of partial agree) and 25% of neutral appreciation. The learning agreement plan had also good evaluation by students (37.5% of strong agree and 37.5% of somewhat agree, making a total of 75% of general concordance). The remaining participants (25%) positioned themselves in a neutral point. Regarding the balance of the activities, students gave a 75% agreement rating (25% of strong agree and 50% partially agree). Again, 25% of students assigned a median ranking. Both, the proposed assessment and the acquisition of competences initially proposed, had very good evaluation (87.5% of general agreement (37.5% of strong agree and 50% of somewhat agree). The remaining participants (12.5%) were positioned in the middle of the scale.

figure 1

Students’ perceptions about organization of the course

Concerning the issue of the workload, it was justified in the focus group due to much readings and accumulation with the other courses of the Masters.

… Let's say that Food Safety and Quality really does have a lot to study. Actually, the volume is very large considering all the legislation that is behind ( … ) (FG#2) … taking into account that there are colleagues in this master who are not from the food professional area, those people may have experienced these difficulties ( FG#2 ) … the workload is linked to overworking with the other courses of the master. It's all accumulated. It has to do with that part too! (FG#1)

Pedagogical resources and assessment activities of the course

Regarding the students’ perceptions about the resources and assessment activities of the course, none of the statements obtained negative perceptions (Fig.  2 ). Three statements obtained 100% of agreement evaluation. “The Regulations presented as supporting material were interesting and appropriate”, “The power-point slides, used as support material, were adequate” and “Forums of interaction with teachers were useful” got the agreement, respectively, 50%, 62.5% and 75% to “I strongly agree” and 50%, 37.5% and 25% to “Somewhat agree”. The other seven statements, besides total and partial agreement, four obtained 12.5% of neutral annotations (to “The chapters of books presented as supporting material were adequate”, “The scientific articles presented as supporting material were useful”, “The individual activities proposed were interesting”, and to “Interaction Forums with colleagues were helpful”) and the other three statements obtained 25% of neutral annotations (to “The proposed group activities were interesting”, “The Moodle platform worked well” and “The Pedagogical Model used corresponds to the expectations”).

figure 2

Students’ perceptions about the resources and activities of the course

In the focus group interview, comments about the e-activities were given, namely related with some constraints of the teamwork in the e-learning teaching regime. Besides students’ satisfaction with this time of assessment, the problem is the conciliation between their intense professional occupation and time available to collaborate with the colleagues:

… the teamwork always promotes the debate, because each person has a different experience and, at the end, always can contribute with something (FG#3) … I always preferred the individual works ( … .) but working in groups compels us to see other points of view and to think ( … .) I think the teamwork is very important. (FG#3) … we have our own agendas. It becomes difficult for us to reconcile our lives with the lives of our colleagues in order to prepare for a teamwork. But we can do it! (FG#2) … There is always a person who is more organized and puts some pressure on the others [of the group] with timings, with the readings of the themes, with participation and with doubts. (FG#3).

Although the regulations presented as support material have had good appreciation in the questionnaire survey, this issue deserved some reflection in the focus group interview:

… If everything were condensed in a simpler way, or drafted annually with a condensation of all the legislation, it might help (FG#1) … at the level of legislation could be organized by themes ( … ) Because, it's like FG#1 said, not everyone is from the food area (FG#3).

Regarding the available material, such as the power point, students considered important to make some adjustments:

… The commented videos, in my opinion, work very well. In this case, with power-points commented. ( … ) we are also able to apprehend some things that only the slide itself, or just that slide, does not transmit us. (FG#2).

In the discussion of the focus group, also some tools were suggested to innovate the form of explanation of the lessons. Thus, students suggested commented power-point presentations. In this way, the student follows the teacher’s comments and has better study orientation. Students also suggested videos:

… in my opinion, commented power-points work very well. That is, as the matter is being introduced, we are also able to apprehend some things that only that slide cannot. I'll give you an example: I've done some training online and when they're written I have more difficulty because I'm alone. When the teacher is exposing the matter, that is to say, he is speaking, in a very fluent way, and he is explaining things to us in a simpler and more concrete way, I think it helps a lot this kind of exposure because we can assimilate more (FG#2) … There is even the case of edX that make free courses. They make many presentations with videos and then, when they want to deepen a certain theme, they refer to the reading of certain documents, or even pages of the specialty. It's a good tool, I guess! (FG#1).

Contents of the course

None of the statements related to the contents of the course obtained negative appreciation (Fig.  3 ). The module of legislation and food safety policies received 100% of agreement. The percentage of strongly agreement was 37.5% and 50%, respectively and the percentage of somewhat agreement was, respectively 62.5% and 50%. Neither of these modules obtained neutral nor negative appreciation. The content on microbiology and microbial contamination received the highest percentage of “strongly agree” (62.5%) response, against 25% of “somewhat agree” and 12.5% of neutral perception. The content on food additives obtained 50% of strongly agreement against 37.5% of “somewhat agree” and 12.5% of neutral perception. In contrast, the content on Food Quality additives obtained 37.5% of strongly agreement against 50% of “somewhat agree” and 12.5% of neutral responses. The online questionnaire responses’ appear to be in line with the statement of a student in the focus group discussion:

… all contents are important (FG#1).

figure 3

Students’ perceptions about contents of the course

Acquisition of Competences

Student expectations are related to the acquisition of knowledge, research skills, and competences development. Regarding Food Safety and Quality acquisition of competences, students agreed that they had gained competences throughout the course (Fig.  4 ). In particular, the competence that allows to evaluate the main dangers to food safety and its influence on the quality of the food product and the competence that allows to understand the importance of food hygiene in good food production practices obtained 100% of agreement (both had 75% of strongly agreement and 25% of somewhat agreement). The recognition of good practices of food storage and food transport also gained 75% of strongly agreement and 12.5% of somewhat agreement. This statement obtained 12.5% of indecisive opinion (or neutral opinion). Clearly positive were also the remaining perceptions: “understanding the concept of food quality”; “knowing the methodology of implementation of quality systems in the agrifood industry” and “Knowing the implications associated with the legislation in the field of food safety”, all obtained, 62.5% strongly agree, 25% somewhat agree and 12.5% neutral opinion.

figure 4

Students’ perceptions about acquisition of competences in the course

One of the students add a very positive comment related to student expectations about the overall course acquired competences:

… It was one of the most relevant courses! It opened my horizons in many aspects. It made me appreciate the industrial and business work in this [food] area and realize that there are unskilled workers that are also great professionals.( … ) The ethical and food product added- value brings benefits to the population. ( … ) THANK YOU TRULY. (Q4).

In the Food Safety Acquired Competences dimension, student focus group discussion reinforced their level of satisfaction:

… I, for my part yes. [The objectives of the course] were achieved. Yes, Yes, they were achieved! I have nothing to point out. (FG#3) … I also think that everything went well (FG#1).

Teachers of the course

Students answered as 87.5% strongly agreement and 12.5% of partial agreement to the scientific competence of teachers of the course (Fig.  5 ). In relation to the guidelines and explanations given throughout the module, 25% strongly agree that were clear and 87.5% agree in part that they were clear. The sentence “Teachers stimulate the learning process” received 50% of strongly agreement, 37.5% of partial agreement and 12.5% of neutral or medium perception. Seventy-five percent of the respondents strongly agree that the activities proposed by the teachers facilitated the understanding of the subject; 12.5% agree partially and 12.5% have neutral perception. The statement “The feedback given to the activities carried out was fundamental” received 50% of strongly agreement, 25% of somewhat agreement, 12.5% of neutral response and 12.5% got negative perception.

figure 5

Students’ perceptions about teachers of the course

Regarding this aspect, in the focus group discussion, students explained that the feedback to their assignments constitute an important tool for them.

… I'm looking for guidance. I'm trying to find out if I'm on the right way and if the methodology I'm using is the right one (FG#1) … Yes, I agree with FG#1. I think feedback is important because when we do an activity, and sometimes we find that is to follow a certain orientation and then, in the end, it was to follow another. (FG#3).

Relation between the course and professional activity of students

From the total of respondents, 75% answered that the course is related with their professional activity (50% of strongly and 25% of somewhat related), and the remaining 25% not related (12.5% strongly not related and 12.5% somewhat not related) (Fig.  6 ).

figure 6

Students’ perceptions about the relation between the course and their professional activity

It was stimulating to verify that 62.5% of the students considered that the course helped to update their knowledge related to professional activity (37.5% strongly agree and 25% somewhat agree). As expected, and considering that there are two students whose professional activity is not directly related to the course area, 12.5% had an undecided opinion and 25% considered that there was no update of the knowledge related to their professional activity (12.5% strongly disagree and 12.5% somewhat disagree). Seventy-five percent of students answered that the course changed their view on the issues of Food Safety and Quality (62.5% strongly changed and 12.5% changed partially). The remaining 25% of students were distributed by 12.5% neutral opinion and 12.5% considered that they did not change their view on food safety issues.

The percentage of students that believed the course gave them the necessary tools to their day-to-day life strongly was 62.5% (50% strongly believed and 12.5% partially believed). No one considered that did not get the necessary tools to their day-to-day life. Only 32.5% of neutral or undecided answers were obtained.

The results of the assessment of changing behaviour shows that half of students consider that this course made them change behaviour in their daily life. Only 12.5% considered that they did not change their behavior and 12.5 positioned themselves on an intermediate scale. Regarding the perceptions of changing attitudes in the daily life, 37.5% answered that they had not changed and 37.5% said that they had changed. In the intermediate position are the remaining 25% of the respondents.

Learning analytics

In both academic years of 2016/2017 ( n  = 7) and 2017/2018 ( n  = 11), eighteen master students of the curricular unit of Food Safety and Quality were active in the Moodle Platform. The total posted messages are represented in Fig.  7 .

figure 7

Total posted messages by topic in both academic years of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. Phase 1 represents the individual or teamwork that precedes a class debate; Phase 2 represents the class debate

In topic 1 it was proposed an individual work in which the student should explain the concepts of food quality and food safety (see Table 1 ). Individual work triggered a reduced number of interactions on the platform: 8 in the 2016/2017 and 14 in 2017/2018 (Fig.  8 ).

figure 8

Topic 1 posted messages. In the left side, the academic year of 2016/2017 and in the right side, the academic year of 2017/2018

In Topic 2 an e-activity was proposed in which the students had to work in groups of 3 and 4 elements to solve a real problem (phase 1), and later, after submitting their proposal in the platform, the class would debate the proposals of each group (phase 2) (see Table 1 ). It is interesting to note that the greatest number of interactions happened near the end of the deadline for the delivery of teamwork for subsequent discussion in class (Fig.  9 ).

figure 9

Temporal distribution of posted messages in Topic 2 (Team work and Class debate). In the left side, the academic year of 2016/2017 and in the right side, the academic year of 2017/2018. The arrows show the deadlines for delivery of work and / or activities

In Topic 6 students should choose a topic from the previous or the current one to be able to submit an abstract for a congress and construct one power point (see Table 1 ). The simulation of a call for papers for one congress was provided to students. This activity was a mixed of individual work with subsequent discussion in group.

Figure  10 shows the posted messages of topic 6 in both academic years of 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. In 2016/2017, students made only 20 interventions and submitted the work, with subsequent discussion, very close to the deadline for the development of the activity. The fact that there were fewer students ( n  = 7 versus n  = 11) in this year, also conditioned the lowest number of public messages published on the Moodle platform. In contrast, the development of the activity in the academic year of 2017/2018 had 84 messages and a more regular work rate. In the academic year 2016/2017 one major deadline was placed by the teachers. In contrast, in the 2017/2018, two major deadlines were placed: the deadline for the production of the abstract and the power-point and the deadline for class debate. In Fig.  10 it can be seen a higher level of interactions on those dates. The fact that there were messages posted even after the deadline is due to students who maintained an interest in participating in the discussion after that period.

figure 10

Temporal distribution of posted messages in Topic 6. In the left side, the academic year of 2016/2017 and in the right side, the academic year of 2017/2018. The arrows show the deadlines for delivery of work and / or activities

The total number of posted messages in the topic 7 were 20 in 2016/2017 and 34 in 2017/2018 (Fig.  11 ). Here too, there is a clear answer to the deadlines imposed by the teacher on the course. The activity proposed was individual (find solutions to solve a real problem) with subsequent discussion and reflexion of the solutions found by each student with the whole class.

figure 11

Temporal distribution of posted messages in Topic 7. In the left side, the academic year of 2016/2017 and in the right side, the academic year of 2017/2018. The arrows show the deadlines for delivery of work and / or activities

Because of people’s busy lifestyles, online education is both an appealing and effective mean of educating the food service workers. Online education allows these workers to be able to proceed at their own pace and identify their own personal course timeline (Shanley et al., 2004 ).

This study focused on students’ perception of the course organization and contents, acquired competences and student’s engagement after enrolling a Food Safety and Quality course of the master’s degree in Food Science that is taught in e-learning at a distance learning Portuguese public university (Universidade Aberta).

Results from the students surveyed shown in general a high level of satisfaction with organization of the course, acquired competences, pedagogical resources, activities for assessment, pedagogical model, learning platform and teachers. Students also made positive evaluations regarding interactivity in forum (with colleagues and with teachers). These results are aligned with earlier research conducted in other formal programs at Universidade Aberta related with science education (Azeiteiro et al., 2015 ; Bacelar-Nicolau et al., 2009 , 2012 , 2015 ). In particular Azeiteiro et al. ( 2015 ), showed that students have a very high level of motivation and satisfaction with the programmes, and having reasons to return again for new training at Universidade Aberta. Also in this research, most students had the perception of having reached an effective learning outcome of knowledge, competences, values, attitudes and behaviour and an improvement on their professional skills related with food safety and quality.

Nevertheless, some weak points were highlighted and some improvements were suggested. These are discussed below.

In the focus group, there was an opportunity to scalp the students’ concerns a bit more, and it was found that they would like that the teachers did more timely feedback because they are looking for a guide to their study. Timely and supportive feedback on submitted coursework can let students know about their progress in learning when peer-induced participation is lacking (Law et al., 2019 ). Furthermore, a quality teaching presence offering clear directions can enhance the learning efficacy of students (Law et al., 2010 ), and this directly affects both the social and cognitive presences. Nevertheless, Palmer and Holt ( 2009 ), obtained lower satisfaction rates for the items that evaluated the feedback given to the activities developed, but this fact can be related with the quality and content and way feedback is given. During the study analysis (2016/17 and 2017/18) the teachers of the course were overloaded with other courses and one of the teachers had a personal reason issue during the 2016/17 that affected the learning process, what had as consequence a delay in a timely feedback to the students. Usual feedbacks given by the curse teachers are very personalized and detailed (to each student and an overall to the all class) what usually support students learning performance. Besides their periodicity and contents, they can also be given through the use of videos or audios what enhance and develop continual learning (Phungsuk et al., 2017 ).

Regarding the e-activities of the course (see Table 1 ), issues related to teamwork compared with individual work were addressed. It was found that the students enjoyed both teamwork and individual activities, but students sometimes prefer individual assignment since it only depend on their time availability. This issue is relevant for students with full time jobs and families to take care. Likewise, the student-student and student-teacher interaction forums were well classified. Learning analytics showed the greatest turnout of students in a teamwork activity (Topic 2) and when there was class debate. Students with stronger learning motivation also tend to engage in course tasks and group activities more actively (Lee et al., 2019 ). From this perspective, learning motivation improves learning effectiveness through its positive and direct effect on social presence and reflects on enrolment. Interaction between students and teacher is vital in any learning experience (Joo et al., 2011 ; Eyal, 2012 ). The effort engaged by learners in finding information is a crucial component of learning performance, which implies that learners who do not actively engage in information processing actively are liable to engage only in surface learning and achieving modest learning performance (Law et al., 2019 ). So, although teamwork is more time demanding from student’s point of view it should be encourage to improve the e-learning process. Indeed, one of the week points found by the students were the high workload of the course, what is in accordance with earlier students perceptions about e-learning courses (Azeiteiro et al., 2015 ; Bacelar-Nicolau et al., 2015 ; Martinho et al., 2016 ).

It is interesting to note that the module of Legislation (topic 7), which was one of the themes most frequently mentioned in the focus group interview (in terms of complexity, requirement and constant updating obligation), obtained a very high degree of content satisfaction. Likewise, the issue of food security policies (one of the most applicable European regulations in force) has also been of student’s satisfaction. The activity related to this topic, although it was not a group activity (which usually leads to greater interactivity in forum), got the 3rd highest frequency of posted messages in forum (54 public messages). This turnout corroborates the students’ satisfaction in the questionnaire survey and the general satisfaction with the course.

Beyond the electronic resources available to students: scientific papers, eBooks, real cases and personal presentations, students suggested that there should be commented power points to improve their study orientation as well as videos. The increasing availability of mobile devices, as well as the fact that videos and computer simulations have become available for a wide range of science subjects, have led to these tools becoming an integral part of many science curricula (Rutten et al., 2011 ). Also other improvement can be implemented to enhance the learning process in this course, for example, the implementation of game-based e-learning activity about food additives or other contents within the course. Gaming have been shown a significantly increased college students’ knowledge, for example about Good Manufacturing Practices (Stevenson et al., 2018 ). Eventually, stories may also be part of games, and, in the field of education, the application of games supporting learning processes has been developed into an increasing body of research (Bidarra et al., 2013 ). A common implementation is called ‘gamification’; it identifies the notion of using elements of video games, such as points, levels, badges and achievements, and their application in professional or educational contexts (Bidarra & Rusman, 2017 ). Yu et al. ( 2018 ), involved unmotivated students to the issues of food safety, by examining the effects of a tablet PC simulation game as a class activity on students’ motivation to learn food safety. This experience showed that there was a significant improvement for students who participated in the simulation game activity regarding learning motivation. Badges are also integrated in the Moodle platform and can be easily added in the course each time a student accomplished a certain task or assignment. Complemented or integrated with gaming, problem based learning and the use of social networking sites (like Facebook or Linkedin) can be implemented in the e-activities also contributing for student’s stimulation (Phungsuk et al., 2017 ).

Another stimulating system to improve a collaborative activity is using Wikispaces. Aguilar et al. ( 2013 ) found that most of the participants that had assessed the Wiki experience agreed that it was a very interesting system, not only for interaction between students on different programmes, but also for the dissemination of the work that had been done. It also fostered interaction between students who would not otherwise have mixed with each other, or would have done so in a relatively tenuous manner in the context of the virtual classrooms.

Besides at UAb the pedagogical strategies have been developed to engage students as active participants (Pereira et al., 2008 ), and this more up to date, interactive, rewarded and motivational strategies (Nah et al., 2014 ) should be put in place. Knowing that the characteristics of an online learning environment have a great impact on student satisfaction (Thurmond & Wambach, 2004 ), it is imperative that the resource used is “skilful”, otherwise no one will be interested in the e- learning application (Violante & Vezzetti, 2013 ).

Conclusions

In this research the overall course organization competences, attitudes and behaviours were reported by students enrolled in a Food Safety and Quality course offered by the Portuguese Distance Learning University (Universidade Aberta). Three types of approaches to data collection were considered. An online questionnaire survey, a focus group interview and a temporal distributions of messages published on the Moodle platform (learning analytics).

The surveyed students showed a very high level of motivation and satisfaction with the course and had the perception of having reached an effective learning outcome in knowledge, competences, attitudes and behaviours. Nevertheless, there are pedagogical and learning issues that should be improved on the Food and Safety Quality course, most related with type of assignments, management of workload, use of more interactive educative tools, and importance of timely and effective feedback to students.

The results showed that some students prefer individual activities rather than group activities because those activities only depend on their time and availability. In fact, this feature of individual activities is very relevant for students who work full time and who have their families to care for. However, that the results also showed that the greatest turnout of students on the platform was detected in the teamwork and, essentially, when there was a class debate. The fact that students indorsed high degree of satisfaction to teamwork activities (although they initially revealed that individual assignments were most desirable) leads to think that the more appealing the tools are for students, the better their performance are in the course. Some of the answers to success, motivation and students’ satisfaction are found in the use of tools and activities easy to use and edit.

Students suggested that there should be commented power points to improve their study orientation as well as videos. Other improvements can be implemented to enhance the learning process in this course, for example, the implementation of game-based e-learning activity (gamification) and the use of Wikispace.

The results of this study helped to realize that students need activities that give them satisfaction in the learning process but also that the role of the teacher is very important. For example, feedback to activities is a point that has to be improved in future editions of this course.

This research aimed to contribute to new knowledge related with the effectiveness of post-graduates courses taught in e-learning about food safety, through a case study and where good practices were highlighted. Education in this field is very relevant worldwide considering the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals related with healthy life’s and the need of update lifelong training of working professionals in the field. In addition, this study aimed to contribute to the lack of clear direction as to how the higher education system would need to change in order to accommodate students’ needs.

This study has limitations most related with the size of the sample of the survey and focus groups and existing bias by the fact that the teacher conducted the survey. Future developments should include other scholar years and other research tools, other than questionnaire surveys for the assessment of competences development and behavior changes. More complete learning analytics can also be conducted namely, using different data mining techniques, statistics and visual analytics techniques (Adejo & Connolly, 2017 ).

Availability of data and materials

Data and materials will be provided by the corresponding author upon request.

Adejo, O., & Connolly, T. (2017). Learning analytics in higher education Development: A roadmap. Journal of Education and Practice , 8 (15), 156–163.

Google Scholar  

Aguilar, A., Medina, F. X., Pons, J. A., & Saigí, F. (2013). Challenges and opportunities of 2.0 tools for the interdisciplinary study of nutrition: The case of the Mediterranean diet wiki. Universities and Knowledge Society Journal (RUSC) , 10 (1), 210–225 https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v10i1.1341 .

Azeiteiro, U. M., Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Caetano, F. J. P., & Caeiro, S. (2015). Education for sustainable development through e-learning in higher education: Experiences from Portugal. Journal of Cleaner Production , 106 , 308–319 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.056 .

Article   Google Scholar  

Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Caeiro, S., Martinho, A. P., & Azeiteiro, U.M., (2015). Attitudes, barriers and motivators as factors for sustainability of higher education e-learning programmes at Universidade Aberta, Portugal. In: Leal Filho, W., Brandli, L., Kuznetsova, O., Paço, A. (eds.). Integrative Approaches to Sustainable Development at University Level: Making the links (Part II). World Sustainability Series. Springer. XII, 567–582 pp- ISBN 978–3–319-10689-2.

Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Caeiro, S., Martinho, A. P., Azeiteiro, U. M., & Amador, F. (2009). E-learning for environment. The Universidade Aberta (Portuguese open Distance University) experience in the environmental sciences post-graduate courses. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education , 10 (4), 354–367.

Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Martinho, A.P., Amador, F., Caeiro, S., & Azeiteiro, U.M. (2012). Online learning for sustainability: the student perception in an environmental science post-graduation. In: Gonçalves, F., Fernando J., Pereira, R., Leal Filho, W., Azeiteiro, U.M., (Eds.). Contributions to Sustainability . Series Umweltbildung, Umweltkommunikation und Nachhaltigkeit - Environmental Education, Communication and Sustainability, Vol. 33. Peter Lang, Frankfurt. 281–294. ISBN 978–3–631-61347-

Bidarra, J., Rothschild, M., Squire, K., & Figueiredo, M. (2013). The AIDLET model: A framework for selecting games, simulations and augmented reality environments in mobile learning. International Journal of Web-Based Learning and Teaching Technologies , 8 , 50–71.

Bidarra, J., & Rusman, E. (2017). Towards a pedagogical model for science education : Bridging educational contexts through a blended learning approach. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 0513 (February), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2016.1265442

Bosman, A., Brent, P., Cocconcelli, P. S., Conole, G., Gombert, D., Hensel, A., & Zilliacus, J. (2016). Expertise for the future: Learning and training in the area of food safety risk assessment. EFSA Journal , 14 , 1–10 https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2016.s0503 .

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology , 3 (2), 77–101.

Coelho, J., Teixeira, A., Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Caeiro, S., & Rocio, V. (2015). iMOOC on climate change: Evaluation of a massive open online learning pilot experience. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning , 16 (6), 152–173 Retrieved from http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.0-84950297680&partnerID=40&md5=12d35f6ec6e729ba34665a897922a369 .

EC. (2004). Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 april 2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs. Official Journal of the European Union , 47. L 139, 3e21

EC, European Commission, (2012). “Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Rethinking Education: investing in skills for better socio- economic outcomes. Strasbourg”, available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/procedure/EN/202132 (accessed 3 may 2019)

EC, European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2014). Modernisation of higher education in Europe: Access, retention and employability 2014. Publications Office of the European Union . Luxembourg: Eurydice Report.

Eyal, L. (2012). Digital assessment literacy — The core role of the teacher in a digital environment. Journal of Educational Technology & Society , 15 (2), 37–49.

FDA, Food and Drug Administration (2009). FDA Retail Food Program Steering Committee. FDA report on the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors in selected institutional foodservice, restaurant, and retail food store facility types. Available at: http://www.foodprotect.org/issues/packets/2012ScribePacket/attachments/I_024_b.pdf . (Retrieved April 25, 2019).

Ferguson, R. (2012). Learning analytics: Drivers, developments and challenges. International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning , 4 (5/6), 304 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtel.2012.051816 .

Flynn, K. M., Ho, P., Vieira, M. C., Pittia, P., & Dalla, M. (2017). Food science and technology students self-evaluate soft and technical skills. International Journal of Food Studies , 6 (2), 129–138 https://doi.org/10.7455/ijfs/6.2.2017.a1 .

Huberman, A. M., & Miles, M. B. (1994). Qualitative data Analyis (2nd ed.). Newsbury Park, CA: Sage.

Joo, Y. J., Lim, K. Y., & Kim, E. K. (2011). Online university students' satisfaction and persistence: Examining the perceived level of presence, usefulness and ease of use as predictors in a structural model. Computers & Education , 57 (2), 1654–1664.

Kim, T. D., Yang, M. Y., Bae, J., Min, B. A., Lee, I., & Kim, J. (2017). Escape from infinite freedom: Effects of constraining user freedom on the prevention of dropout in an online learning context. Computers in Human Behaviour , 66 , 217–231.

Kneifel, W., Apprich, S., & Kleboth, J. (2012). The MSc Programme: Safety in the food chain. Available at http://www.dlwt.boku.ac.at/fileadmin/data/H03000/?H75000/lehre75/SIFC_Pra%CC%88sentation_22.05.12_screen.pdf

Krueger, R. A. Casey, M. A. (2015). Focus groups: A practical guide for applied research. 5th edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.

Lacave, C., Molina, A. I., & Cruz-Lemus, J. A. (2018). Learning analytics to identify dropout factors of computer science studies through Bayesian networks. Behaviour & Information Technology , 37 (10–11), 993–1007. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2018.1485053 .

Law, K. M. Y., Geng, S., & Li, T. (2019). Student enrollment, motivation and learning performance in a blended learning environment: The mediating effects of social, teaching, and cognitive presence. Computers & Education , 136 , 1–12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2019.02.021 .

Law, K. M. Y., Lee, V. C. S., & Yu, Y. T. (2010). Learning motivation in e-learning facilitated computer programming courses. Computers & Education , 55 (1), 218–228.

Lee, J., Song, H. D., & Hong, J. A. (2019). Exploring factors, and indicators for measuring students’ Sustainable engagement in e-learning. Sustainability , 11 , 985. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11040985 .

Lin, Y. G., McKeachie, W. J., & Kim, Y. C. (2001). College student intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivation and learning. Learning and Individual Differences, 13(3), 251–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1041-6080 (02)00092-4

Martinho, A. P., Vaz-Fernandes, P., Padrel de Oliveira, C., Bacelar-Nicolau, P., Azeiteiro, U. M., & Caeiro, S. (2016). Strengths and weaknesses of an e-learning program in environmental sciences at Universidade Aberta, Portugal. In: Walter Leal Filho and Paul Pace (eds.) Teaching Education for Sustainable Development at University Level . World Sustainability Series, Springer, Berlin. 49–66.

Mather, E. C., & McNiel, P. A. (2008). The online professional master of science in food safety degree program at Michigan State University: An innovative graduate education in food safety. Journal of Veterinary Medical Education , 33 (2), 272–278 https://doi.org/10.3138/jvme.33.2.272 .

Moura, A. P., & Aires, L. (2012). How to learn about individual food choice criteria subject? A case study on e-learning environment module. In J. Ribeiro, & L. Aires (Eds.), Investigação e Variantes Curriculares do Ensino Online: Desafios da Interculturalidade na Era Tecnológica . Portugal: CEMERI, Universidade Aberta.

Moura, A. P., Cunha, L. M., Azeiteiro, U. M., Aires, L., Graça, P., & de Almeida, M. D. V. (2010). Food consumer science post-graduate courses: Comparison of face-to-face versus online delivery systems. British Food Journal , 112 (5), 544–556 https://doi.org/10.1108/00070701011043781 .

Moura, A. P. D., Aires, L. (2018). Food and Sustainability:. An Emerging Subject in Sustainable Environmental Sciences Education Applying to the e-Learning Environment. 109–130.

Moura, A. P. Fernandes, A. P., Caetano, F., Carapeto, C., & Oliveira, C. (2014). Avaliação do Curso de Mestrado Online em Ciências do Consumo Alimentar: Aplicação do Modelo de Análise SWOT. In M. J. (Organizadores) Aires, L, Moura AP, Seabra F (Ed.), Educação a Distância e Diversidade do Ensino Superior (pp. 69–80). Universidade Aberta. Retrieved from: https://www2.uab.pt/producao/eBooksArea/EaDDES/actasUAb.pdf .

Nah, F. F., Zeng, Q., Telaprolu, V. R., Ayyappa, A. P., & Eschenbrenner, B. (2014). Gamification of Education: A Review of Literature. In: F.F.H. Nah (Eds.). HCIB/HCII 2014, LNCS 8527, Springer, 401–409.

Oliveira, C., Carmo, H., Caeiro, S. (2016). Avaliação de uma unidade curricular do programa de doutoramento em Sustentabilidade Social e Desenvolvimento da Universidade Aberta de Portugal. In Maciel, C., Alonso, K. M., Peixoto, J. (eds.). Educação a Distância Experiências, Vivências e Realidades. Editora Ed UFMC, Mato Grosso, Brasil, 297–320. ISBN 978-85-327-0586-0.

Ovca, A., Jevšnik, M., & Raspor (2017). Food safety practices of future food handlers and their teachers, observed during practical lessons. British Food Journal , 120 (3), 531–548.

Palmer, S. R., & Holt, D. M. (2009). Examining student satisfaction with wholly online learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning , 25 (2), 101–113 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2008.00294.x .

Papamitsiou, Z., & Economides, A. A. (2014). Learning analytics and educational data Mining in Practice : A systematic literature review of empirical evidence the research questions, 17, 49–64.Ytics and educational data Mining in Practice : A. Educational Technology & Society , 17 (October), 49–64 Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/docview/1660157007?pq-origsite=summon .

Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods. Sage, Newbury Park, California.

Pereira, A., Mendes, A.Q., Morgado, L., Amante, L., & Bidarra, J. (2008). Universidade Aberta's pedagogical model for distance education©. Universidade Aberta, Lisbon. Available at: https://repositorioaberto.uab.pt/bitstream/10400.2/2388/1/MPV_uaberta_english.pdf (retrieved April 26 2019).

Phungsuk, R., Viriyavejakul, C., & Ratanaolarn, T. (2017). Development of a problem-based learning model via a virtual learning environment. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences , 38 (3), 297–306.

Robinson, N. (1999). The use of focus group methodology - with selected examples from sexual health research. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 29 (4), 905–913. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00966.x .

Rupert, D. J., Poehlman, J. A., Hayes, J. J., Ray, S. E., & Moultrie, R. R. (2017). Virtual versus in-person focus groups: Comparison of costs, recruitment, and participant logistics. Journal of Medical Internet Research , 19 (3), e80. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.6980 .

Rutten, N., van Joolingen, W. R., & van der Veen, J. T. (2011). The learning effects of computer simulations in science education. Computers & Education , 58 , 136–153.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhill, A. (2007). Research methods for business students, fourth ed. Pearson Education Limited, Harlow, England, p. 624

Scallan, E., & Angulo, F. J. (2007). Surveillance for foodborne diseases. In N. M. M'ikanatha, R. Lynfield, C. A. V. Beneden, & H. Valk (Eds.), Infectious disease surveillance , (pp. 57–70). New Jersey: Blackwell Publishing.

Chapter   Google Scholar  

Scott, E. (2003). Food safety and foodborne disease in 21st century homes. Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases , 14 (5), 277–280.

Shanley, E. L., Thompson, C. A., Leuchner, L. A., & Zhao, Y. (2004). Distance education is as effective as traditional education when teaching food safetys. Food Service Technology , 4 (1), 1–8 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-5740.2003.00071.x .

Stevenson, C. D., Porter, K., & Stevenson, K. T. (2018). Effects of a game-based e-learning module on undergraduate food science students’ planned behaviors concerning good manufacturing practices. Journal of Food Science Education , 17 (4), 111–117 https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4329.12148 .

Thurmond, V., & Wambach, K. (2004). Towards an understanding of interactions in distance education. Online Journal of Nursing Informatics, (OJNI), 8(4).

UAb (2019a). Web Page of Universidade Aberta. Available at: https://portal.uab.pt/en/auab/ (Retrieved 3 may, 2019)

UAb (2019b), Web Page of Universidade Aberta. Available at: http://www2.uab.pt/guiainformativo/eng_detailcursos.php?curso=25 (Retrieved 3 may, 2019)

UN (2016). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development. In A/RES/70/1 . United: Nations.

UN Sustainable Development Goals. Available at: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ sustainable-development-goals// (Retrieved April 30 2019).

Violante, M. G., & Vezzetti, E. (2013). Virtual interactive E-learning application: An evaluation of the student satisfaction. Computer Applications in Engineering Education , 23 (1), 72–91 https://doi.org/10.1002/cae.21580 .

WHO & FAO (2009). Food Hygiene (Basic Texts), 4th ed., World Health Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.

WHO, World Health Organization (2008). Foodborne disease outbreaks: Guidelines for investigation and control. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/43771/9789241547222_eng.pdf;jsessionid=218C69978B89CA8653571F5347774625?sequence=1 . (Retrieved April 25, 2019)

WHO, World Health Organization (2013). Advancing Food Safety Initiatives: Strategic plan for food safety including foodborne zoonoses 2013–2022. (Available at: http://www.who.int/foodsafety/strategic-plan/en/ . (Retrieved April 25, 2019).

WHO, World Health Organization (2015). WHO’s first ever global estimates of foodborne diseases find children under 5 account for almost one third of deaths. Available at: https://www.who.int/en/news-room/detail/03-12-2015-who-s-first-ever-global-estimates-of-foodborne-diseases-find-children-under-5-account-for-almost-one-third-of-deaths . (Retrieved April 25, 2019).

Wilkinson, S. (1998). Focus group methodology: A review. International Journal of Social Research Methodology , 1 (3), 181–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.1998.10846874 .

Yu, H., Sirsat, S. A., & Madera, J. M. (2018). Leisure , Sport & Tourism Education Enhancing hospitality students ’ motivation to learn food safety knowledge using tablet personal computer (TPC) -based simulation game class activity. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education, 23(August), 82–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhlste.2018.08.002

Zanin, L. M., da Cunha, D. T., de Rosso, V. V., Capriles, V. D., & Stedefeldt, E. (2017). Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in food safety: An integrative review. Food Research International, 100(July), 53–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2017.07.042

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their special thanks to the students that participate in the surveys and Ana Sofia Mil-Homens for allowing the dissemination of data from the Food Safety and Quality course of the MSc program in Food Science at Universidade Aberta. We also thank to Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) for its funding (UID/AMB/04085/2019) to Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research (CENSE), NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University and also for other funding (UID/CPO/00713/2019), to Center for Public Policy and Administration (CAPP), ISCSP/Universidade de Lisboa.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Sciences and Technology, Universidade Aberta, Rua da Escola Politécnica141, 1269-001, Lisbon, Portugal

Paula Vaz-Fernandes & Sandra Caeiro

CAPP, Centre for Public Administration & Public Policies, University of Lisbon, Rua Almerindo Lessa, 1300-663, Lisbon, Portugal

Paula Vaz-Fernandes

CENSE, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal

Sandra Caeiro

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

SC formulated the study idea and developed the conceptual framework. SC and PVF designed the surveys, collected the data, analysed and interpreted data. Both authors wrote, read, and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paula Vaz-Fernandes .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Additional file

Additional file 1:.

QUESTIONNAIRE. (DOCX 41 kb)

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Vaz-Fernandes, P., Caeiro, S. Students’ perceptions of a food safety and quality e-learning course: a CASE study for a MSC in food consumption. Int J Educ Technol High Educ 16 , 37 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0168-8

Download citation

Received : 07 May 2019

Accepted : 13 August 2019

Published : 08 October 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-019-0168-8

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

  • Qualitative evaluation
  • Food safety and quality
  • Online master course

importance of food safety research paper

importance of food safety research paper

MSU Extension Dairy

Investing in excellence: milk quality and udder health training insights.

Zelmar Rodriguez, Department of Large Animal Clinical Science - February 13, 2024

share this on facebook

Our research has shown that training of farm workers generates knowledge, satisfaction and a willingness to adhere to milking protocols resulting in quantifiably better milk quality, food safety and udder health.

Cow being milked.

Quick summary

Following an appropriate milking routine has a profound effect on reducing mastitis and improving food safety and milk quality. Our research has shown that training of farm workers generates knowledge, satisfaction and a willingness to adhere to milking protocols resulting in quantifiably better milk quality, food safety and udder health.

Milking routine in the context of milk quality and udder health

Clinical and subclinical mastitis are among the costliest diseases in dairy farming given their negative effect on milk quality and milk yield, ultimately affecting profitability of the dairy. Among the several procedures occurring on a dairy farm, there are very few with a more profound effect on reducing mastitis and improving food safety and milk quality than an appropriate milking routine. Multiple studies have evaluated each of the recommended steps of the standard milking routine reporting overwhelming benefits. Nevertheless, the variability in milk quality among dairy farms may be partly explained by poor protocol compliance.

Training as a milking routine limitation

Based on my experience, an important limitation to effectively following a milking routine by farm personnel is the lack of understanding of the reasons behind and importance of this essential part of the milking process. In other words, people need to know why they have to do what they have been told to do.

Multiple studies underscore the positive impact of training programs on various aspects of dairy farm operations which ultimately results in a positive return on equity. While there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for mastitis management procedures, general training tailored to the specific needs of the farm may be impactful. However, there is limited follow up assessment of milking routine training program effectiveness to achieve improved protocol compliance and udder health on dairy farms.

Evaluating the impact of training - Research at MSU

Therefore, together with Dr. Pamela Ruegg from MSU and Drs. Mario Lopez and Marianna Gentilini from DeLaval, we carried out an experimental study to address the following questions:

  • What is the current knowledge of farm workers about milking routines and how much can they learn about it?
  • What is the impact of training farm workers on milking procedure compliance, udder health and milk quality?

Fig 1.png

From April to September 2023, I visited 16 dairy farms, three times each. The initial visit involved a visual parlor evaluation, the second visit was to deliver a bilingual training session on milk quality and milking routine compliance, and the final visit was to conduct a post training parlor evaluation (Fig. 1). The parlor evaluations included recording pre-milking preparation times, such as contact time of pre-milking teat disinfectant, stimulation time, and milking time, along with assessing parlor and operator performance.

The training session (~ 1 hour) covered the pathogenesis, identification and risk factors of mastitis, and the reasons for each of the steps used in the milking routine on that particular farm. The milking routine was discussed, and any necessary adjustments were agreed upon by workers and employers during the training session based on the first parlor evaluation. All participants took voluntary and anonymous pre- and post-evaluation tests with 10 questions each, completed socio-demographic questions, and rated their level of satisfaction with the training material.

Through this article, I will highlight the most relevant results from this research:

1) Dairy workers participating in the study mirrored the national dairy workforce

The study involved 112 farm workers from 16 dairy farms who care for 17,205 cows. All farms had parallel or herringbone parlors. The median herd size was 1,101 cows and ranged from 280 to 2,330 lactating cows. The average number of employees was 15, ranging from 8 to 32.

The sociodemographic information of participants largely reflected national trends in the dairy farm workforce, suggesting a good generalizability of our findings. Specific results included:

  • 75% of participants spoke Spanish, highlighting the importance of considering language barriers in training programs.
  • The diverse educational background of workers represents a challenge for educators when generating training content for all participants.
  • 70% of employees have less than 1 year of experience, likely related with the 33% turnover during the previous year (ranging from 0% to 125%) in the participating farms. Considering the limited experience by most employees, training workers to understand the milking protocol became crucial to achieving optimal milking performance.

Fig 2.png

2) Dairy workers gained knowledge on the reasons and importance of adhering to the milking routine on their farms

  • As compared to pre-test scores, dairy worker knowledge of the milking routine increased by 18% (Fig. 2), on average.
  • During group discussions, milking technicians, managers and owners had the opportunity to reach consensus on various topics. For instance, they clarified procedures for managing abnormal milk, particularly in mild clinical cases.
  • The least clear topic was the importance and function of pre-milking teat disinfection (Fig. 3-4) followed by concepts related to milk letdown. However, there was substantial improvement in both topics after training (Fig. 2).
  • Employees rated the training as highly beneficial (average score 4.5 out of 5) in terms of improving their understanding of the milking process, ease of comprehension, and immediate practical applicability in the field (Fig. 5).

Pic 3.jpg

3) The training session generated a positive impact in milking routine compliance, milk quality and udder health

More time-effective parlor procedures were achieved after the training session. Main findings:

  • Inadequate preparation time decreased from 41% of cows before training to 16% after training.
  • Insufficient teat coverage decreased from 9.8% before training to 5.9% after training.
  • Average stimulation time was reduced to 105 seconds/cow (target between 60 to 180 seconds).
  • Pre-milking teat disinfection contact time increased 9 seconds/cow (recommendation is > 30 seconds).
  • Milking time was reduced 25 seconds, likely due to reinforcement during training on avoiding unnecessary reattachment, and special attention if reattachments are set in manual.

There was improvement in milk quality and mastitis identification. The main findings were:

  • Bulk tank somatic cell counts after training stopped the seasonal increasing trend during the 21 days after intervention.
  • An increased number of clinical mastitis cases were recorded during the week after the training, likely because of reinforcement of forestripping as the best method to identify clinical mastitis.

What to remember?

Training of farm workers generates knowledge, satisfaction, and a willingness to adhere to the milking protocol, resulting in quantifiably better milk quality and udder health. Thus, investing in having a well-trained workforce in your dairy will result in better job performance and increased job satisfaction.

MSU Extension educators are available to provide on-farm training for employees throughout Michigan, covering multiple areas of dairy management both in English and Spanish. Educational resources, event information, and list of dairy experts are shared through the MSU Extension dairy website . Also, you can reach out to me to [email protected]

This article was published by Michigan State University Extension . For more information, visit https://extension.msu.edu . To have a digest of information delivered straight to your email inbox, visit https://extension.msu.edu/newsletters . To contact an expert in your area, visit https://extension.msu.edu/experts , or call 888-MSUE4MI (888-678-3464).

Did you find this article useful?

Haul manure? Check out the Michigan Manure Hauler Certification Program!

Check out the MSU Agricultural Industries Program!

Other Articles from this Publication

2024 Michigan Dairy Health Symposium - The Science of healthier calves

2024 Michigan Dairy Health Symposium - The Science of healthier calves

Award-winning cheesemakers to instruct cheese workshop

Award-winning cheesemakers to instruct cheese workshop

Sharing experiences managing Bovine Leukemia Virus during 2023 International All Things BLV Conference

Sharing experiences managing Bovine Leukemia Virus during 2023 International All Things BLV Conference

Liquid manure pit closure: guidelines for risk management

Liquid manure pit closure: guidelines for risk management

Beginning farmers have plenty to glean from MI Ag Ideas to Grow With

Beginning farmers have plenty to glean from MI Ag Ideas to Grow With

A valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship is key to successful cattle health

A valid veterinarian-client-patient relationship is key to successful cattle health

Westendorp family in front of barn.

2024 Winter Spartan Dairy Newsletter

Stay in touch with the latest dairy news and research at MSU

View the rest of the articles from the publication

  • 2024 winter spartan dairy
  • agriculture
  • animal agriculture
  • college of veterinary medicine
  • dairy labor
  • msu extension
  • 2024 winter spartan dairy,
  • agriculture,
  • animal agriculture,
  • college of veterinary medicine,
  • dairy labor,
  • See all Dairy events
  • Read the latest Dairy news
  • See all Dairy experts
  • See all Dairy resources

U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

  • Publications
  • Account settings
  • Advanced Search
  • Journal List

Logo of nutrients

Food Labeling: Analysis, Understanding, and Perception

Daniela martini.

1 Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), Università degli Studi di Milano, 20133 Milan, Italy

Davide Menozzi

2 Department of Food and Drug, University of Parma, 43124 Parma, Italy

Associated Data

Not applicable.

Food labels are the first informative tool found by the customers during shopping, and are informative in terms of ingredients, nutrient content, and the presence of allergens of the selected product. However, food labeling also represents a marketing tool and may influence perception of the food quality and, in turn, the dietary choice of consumers. For this reason, there is growing research in the food labeling field and in the evaluation of its effects on consumers, food operators, and the whole market [ 1 , 2 ]. This is supported by a wide range of manuscripts published in recent years, for instance, with the specific purpose to better investigate how specific information on the food packaging may influence food purchases and consumption and, in general, dietary behavior [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]

The Special Issue “ Food Labeling: Analysis, Understanding, and Perception ” was conceived with the intention to further explore current efforts in food labeling research and welcomed original studies, as well as reviews of the literature, focusing on: (i) the analysis of the nutrient profile of products with different characteristics reported on the food labels, i.e., nutrition and health claims (NHCs), organic, gluten-free (GF); (ii) the nutrient profile underlying front-of-pack (FOP) nutrition labels and their graphical design in different countries; (iii) the consumers’ perception, knowledge, and understanding of the information provided on food labeling; (iv) the impact of information on food labeling (e.g., FOP information, serving size) on consumers’ willingness to pay and food choice; (v) the attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions and behavioral and socioeconomic determinants regarding the use of food labels.

This Special Issue provides a series of 25 contributions, with 20 original papers, four narrative reviews, and one commentary. This last article is a consensus by eminent exponents of the International Carbohydrate Quality Consortium (ICQC) [ 9 ], which underlines the importance of dietary fiber, which is not always mandatory on food labeling (e.g., Reg. (EU) No 1169/2011) [ 10 ]. The authors supported the need for including fiber values in food labeling by distinguishing between intrinsic and added fiber, which may also help to achieve the recommended intake by consumers. The need to consider other information on food labels has also been discussed by Marinangeli and colleagues [ 11 ], who reviewed the regulatory frameworks and examples of associated non-mandatory food labeling claims currently employed to highlight healthy carbohydrate foods to consumers. Among the information, the authors considered NHCs related to dietary fiber, glycemic index, and glycemic response, and the presence of whole carbohydrate foods and ingredients that are intact or reconstituted (e.g., whole grains).

Some studies focused on the analysis of the nutritional quality of specific food groups and/or specific nutrients. Three studies were performed within the Food Labeling of Italian Products (FLIP) [ 12 , 13 , 14 ], a project aiming to evaluate the nutritional quality of packaged products currently sold in the online shops of several retailers in Italy [ 15 , 16 , 17 ]. Specifically, two studies focused on the analysis of the food labeling of breakfast cereals [ 12 ] and pasta [ 14 ]. The first study reported an elevated inter-product variability among breakfast cereals currently sold in Italy, with only limited differences when products with NHCs and GF declarations were compared with products not carrying this information [ 12 ]. Similarly, the study performed on pasta revealed that pasta types currently on the Italian market largely vary in terms of nutrition profile, with stuffed pasta characterized by a high salt content [ 14 ]. This last aspect supports the importance of providing nutrition facts of product to consumers to help them in making informed food choices. The last study performed within the FLIP project compared the nutritional quality of organic and conventional food products, highlighting that, with just a few exceptions, prepacked organic products are not of a superior nutritional quality than conventional ones, based on the mandatory information present on their packaging [ 13 ].

Yusta-Bojo et al. [ 18 ] focused on the sugar content in the most-consumed processed foods in Spain and compared the sugar values declared on the label (LVs) with laboratory analysis values (AVs). The study findings evidenced a high adequacy of LVs with the EU labeling tolerance requirements, with only cured ham presenting significant differences between the median AVs and LVs. Lastly, Azzopardi et al. investigated the energy density (ED) of food products targeted at children sold in Australia, finding a high proportion of products with a high ED (i.e., >950 kJ/100 g) among the 548 food items considered [ 19 ]. The same study observed that the health star rating (HSR) system, one of the FOP systems introduced in Australia in 2014, did not consistently discriminate between ED levels, particularly for high-ED foods.

The HSR was also studied in another study focused on consumers’ perception [ 20 ] and performed with fifteen Australian grocery shoppers. Intriguingly, the findings from this study showed that the HSR was perceived as a simple, easy-to-understand, and useful tool, despite a certain grade of skepticism concerning its conception. The consumers’ perception and responses to FOP labels was also considered in another two papers published by Egnell et al. [ 21 ] and Talati et al. [ 22 ], showing results from the Netherlands and across another 12 countries, respectively, supporting that this represents a widely explored field of research. In detail, the first study [ 21 ] compared the perception and understanding of five FOP labels (HSR, Nutri-Score, multiple traffic lights (MTLs), reference intake, and warning symbols) among 1032 Dutch participants, finding a favorable perception, with Nutri-Score showing the highest performance in helping consumers to rank the products according to their nutritional quality. Conversely, in a similar study performed with over 12,000 participants across 12 countries, MTLs obtained the most favorable ratings, with mixed or neutral perceptions of the other FOP labels [ 22 ]. A third study by Breen et al. [ 23 ] compared NHCs, the HSR, and the price of snack foods sold in health food (HF) stores and aisles with the ones sold in regular areas (RAs) of supermarkets. The results showed that snack foods of HF stores displayed a significantly higher number of product claims compared to RA foods, together with a higher HSR and cost.

Botelho et al. [ 24 ] analyzed the FOP of food items shown in specific sections of the circulars of two Brazilian supermarket chains during a 10-week period, classifying them by their “unprocessed/minimally processed” versus “ultraprocessed” (UP) items and the presence and type of claims on the FOP. The NOVA systems represent another way of classifying foods that has receiving growing interest and which is based on the degree of food processing [ 25 ]. In this Special Issue, authors found that more than 50% of the items sold in the health and wellness section were UP and reported a high presence of reduced and increased nutrient content claims, suggesting that supermarkets’ circulars often promote the sale of UP foods.

Besides the study of consumers’ perception of FOP, it is worth investigating the predictors of consumer interest in FOP and back-of-pack labels. This was the object of a Polish study [ 26 ] which found that self-rated knowledge about nutrition healthiness is the only significant predictor in over 1000 Polish consumers, while neither demographic nor socioeconomic variables were significant predictors of interest towards food labels. Plasek and coworkers [ 27 ] focused on six categories of actors that seem to influence the perceived healthiness of foods: (i) the communication information (such as FOPs and NHCs), (ii) the product category, (iii) the shape and color of the product packaging, (iv) the ingredients of the product, (v) the organic origin of the product, and (vi) the sensory characteristics of food. Bryla [ 28 ] also found that FOP label reading is one of the predictors of the importance linked to salt content in over 1000 Polish consumers, in addition to other predictors such as the importance and attention to NHCs and the respondent’s age.

Two studies applied hypothetical discrete choice experiments to analyzing consumers’ choices and willingness to pay (WTP) for, respectively, fish products [ 29 ] and pork sausages [ 30 ]. Menozzi and colleagues interviewed 2500 fish consumers in five European countries to assess the relative importance and WTP for different fish species and labeled attributes (i.e., sustainability label, NHCs, product presentation, production system, and price). The findings showed positive premiums for sustainability label, NHCs, and wild-caught alternatives, with high heterogeneity across countries and species [ 29 ]. Czine et al. [ 30 ] investigated whether product characteristics indicated on food labels of sausage made from traditional Hungarian mangalica pork might influence consumers’ choices. The authors found respondents’ preference for the label of origin indicating meat from registered animals, and purchasing from the farmers’ market is preferred over the butcher and hyper-/supermarket.

Country-of-origin (COO) labeling effects were analyzed by Bimbo et al. [ 31 ]. The authors tested the price differential associated with the COO information for extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) in Italy, employing a hedonic price model on the purchase of EVOO products collected from 982 consumers at the supermarket checkouts. Although the mandatory COO labeling regulation for EVOO can be an effective tool for consumers to identify the origin of the product and for producers to differentiate products, the results evidenced a significant share of consumers unable to correctly identify the origin of the EVOO purchased, mostly among consumers who reported having purchased Italian EVOO.

Two experiments were conducted to analyze the effects of visual aids and color nutrition information (CNI) on sugar-sweetened beverages [ 32 ] and sweet food consumption [ 33 ]. Merillat et al. [ 32 ] assessed the effects of visual aids on judgments of sugar quantity in popular drinks and the choices of 261 individuals recruited in the USA. In the experimental condition, participants viewed beverages along with test tubes filled with the total amount of sugar in each drink and this led to a lower intention to consume any of the beverages, suggesting that this simple visual aid intervention affected judgments and choices towards curtailing sugar intake. Using an eye-tracking technique, Potthoff et al. [ 33 ] evaluated the effect of CNI based on a traffic light system adopted in Austria; participants in this study viewed images depicting sweets preceded by a colored circle informing about the sugar content of the food, with and without nutrition information. The results showed that the intervention had the opposite of the intended effect and the authors questioned whether CNI is helpful to influence initial cue reactivity toward sweet foods.

A quasi-experimental online trial on the choice of sugar foods was performed by Chen et al. [ 34 ] in Taiwan. The authors analyzed how mothers’ choices of low-sugar food were affected by theory-driven nutrition interventions, finding that, after the intervention, they exhibited enhanced sugar and nutrition label knowledge, perceived behavioral control, behavioral intentions, and behavior.

Another experiment was conducted by Modlinska et al. [ 35 ] with 99 Polish individuals to assess the influence of food labeling (insect content) and appearance (traces of insect-like ingredients) on the participants’ perception. The results showed that products labeled as containing insects are consumed with reluctance and in lower quantities despite their appearance, regardless of the form in which the insects are served. The authors provided recommendations for labeling strategies to help to reduce the effect of disgust.

As already mentioned, food labeling does not include only nutritional information, and this is why a series of papers focused on other aspects is included. For instance, Ontiveros and colleagues [ 36 ] focused on allergens, by evaluating the characteristics of food allergen labeling and precautionary allergen labeling (PAL) in over 10,000 products sold in six Latin American countries. The authors found a high (>87.4%) compliance with local regulations, but countries without specific regulations for allergen labeling had two-fold more products containing allergens in their ingredients lists but no food allergen labeling, compared to countries with regulations. These results suggest that the lack of regulations for the characteristics of allergen labeling increases the risk of accidental exposure to allergens of interest.

Another interesting topic was reviewed by Van der Horst and coworkers [ 37 ], who investigated how healthy adults perceive and interpret serving size information on food packages and its influence on product perception and consumption. In their systematic review, the authors observed an overall poor conception of serving size, while the few included studies showed that labeled serving size affects portion size selection and consumption.

Finally, Rincón-Gallardo Patiño et al. [ 38 ] investigated restaurant menu labeling policies and their effects on menu reformulation. The authors found three voluntary and eight mandatory menu labeling policies primarily for energy disclosures, developed in upper-middle- and high-income countries, whereas none was found in low- or middle-income countries. The subsequent analysis conducted by the authors showed reductions in energy for newly introduced menu items only in the US. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also provided.

Overall, the studies included in the Special Issue provide new insights in this field of research, with relevant recommendations for policy makers, business operators, and researchers for developing more effective labeling strategies, allowing consumers to make informed dietary choices. At the same time, many authors reported the need for performing further investigations to confirm and expand current findings.

This research received no external funding.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

IMAGES

  1. Importance of Food Safety

    importance of food safety research paper

  2. Food safety essay question

    importance of food safety research paper

  3. ≫ Importance of Knowledge in Food Safety Free Essay Sample on Samploon.com

    importance of food safety research paper

  4. PPT

    importance of food safety research paper

  5. The Importance of Food Safety Standards (and How It’s Achieved)

    importance of food safety research paper

  6. This is a great resource to help students understand the importance of

    importance of food safety research paper

VIDEO

  1. Lecture One, Basic Food Safety

  2. Food Safety

  3. Government standoff effects food safety

  4. Hon Hai Food Safety Research Lab

  5. Food Safety Course Outline

COMMENTS

  1. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Food Safety and Hygiene Training on Food Handlers

    The purpose of this research is to assess the effects of training interventions on knowledge, attitude, and practice on food safety and hygiene among food handlers at different stages of the food supply chain. To this end, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis with close adherence to the PRISMA guidelines.

  2. (PDF) Food safety and hygiene: A review

    ... Higher education has the potential to positively influence food handlers, fostering a favorable attitude towards food safety practices and promoting their implementation (Dagne, Azanaw,...

  3. Food safety in the 21st century

    Food safety is a basic human right Billions of people in the world are at risk of unsafe food. Many millions become sick while hundreds of thousands die every year because they consume unsafe food. Therefore, safe food saves lives. Safe food enhances individual and population health.

  4. (PDF) Food Quality and Food Safety

    Jan 2024 BMC PUBLIC HEALTH Ke Jiang Zhourong Li Yong Zhao View Show abstract ... The contamination of food matrices occurs not only during the food production stage, but also in the...

  5. Consumer Understanding of Food Quality, Healthiness, and Environmental

    Food quality is a central issue in today's food economics [ 3 ], and the last few decades testify that consumers' concerns for healthier lifestyles and environment care are driving forces for reshaping food buying intentions and their perspectives on food quality.

  6. Food safety in global supply chains: A literature review

    By examining the importance of food safety issues in both the private and public arenas and the need for more research on the way food is managed as part of global supply chains, which has been reinforced by publications in this field (Auler et al., 2017; Marucheck, Greis, Mena, & Cai, 2011 ), this research aimed to answer the following question...

  7. Environment and food safety: a novel integrative review

    Environment protection and food safety are two critical issues in the world. In this review, a novel approach which integrates statistical study and subjective discussion was adopted to review recent advances on environment and food safety. Firstly, a scientometric-based statistical study was conducted based on 4904 publications collected from the Web of Science Core Collection database. It ...

  8. (PDF) The Impact of Food Safety Awareness, Knowledge and ...

    Ahmad Albattat Management and Science University Food safety refers to controlling, preparing, and storing food to limit foodborne illness risk, and it's a global concern. Consumers sometimes...

  9. Food Safety Research Priorities & Studies

    While FSIS is not a research funding organization, it recognizes the importance of keeping abreast of the latest scientific endeavors as well as its role in promoting research in areas important to the FSIS mission. This listing supports the three goals of the FSIS Strategic Plan: Prevent Foodborne Illness and Protect Public Health

  10. Foods

    Food safety remains a public health priority and a major concern worldwide. According to the WHO, an estimated 600 million (1 in 10 people globally) fall ill due to consumption of contaminated foods every year, and 420,000 die resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs).

  11. Big Data in food safety- A review

    It is applied in food safety to clarify or test the essential food safety facts, reveal the hidden details and predict the trends. Content analysis was carried out on a variety of food safety data, such as food safety incidents [33], food fraud cases [34], food spot check and sample inspection data [35, 36, 37 •].

  12. Full article: HACCP, quality, and food safety management in food and

    The burden of foodborne diseases and their associated illness/death is a global concern. Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) and food safety/quality management are employed to combat this problem. With the existing and emerging food safety/quality management concerns, this study aims to evaluate the traditional and modern/novel ...

  13. Food safety in the 21st century

    Review Article Food safety in the 21st century Huei-Shyong Show more Add to Mendeley https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2018.03.003Get rights and content Under a Creative Commons Food is essential to life, hence food safety is a basic human right. Billons of people in the world are at risk of unsafe food.

  14. Interactions between Street Food and Food Safety Topics in the

    Specifically, the object of this paper was to discover, based on the empirical evidence, any existing objectively demonstrable interaction between the scientific topics of SF and FS, and the existence of the scientific field of research regarding "Street Food Safety". The research questions were: RQ1.

  15. PDF Young People s Views on Food Hygiene and Food Safety: A ...

    Abstract: Foodborne diseases are a global burden, are preventable, and young people are a key population for behaviour change as they gain autonomy. This study aimed to explore young people's needs across several European countries in relation to learning about and implementing food hygiene and food safety.

  16. Factors associated with food safety practices among food handlers

    Objective The primary objective of this study was to assess factors associated with food safety practices among food handlers in Gondar city food and drinking establishments. The facility-based cross-sectional study was undertaken from March 3 to May 28, 2018, in Gondar city. Simple random sampling method was used to select both establishments and the food handlers. The data were collected ...

  17. Food safety knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices of street-cooked

    Background Food safety and hygiene are currently a global health apprehension especially in unindustrialized countries as a result of increasing food-borne diseases (FBDs) and accompanying deaths. This study aimed at assessing knowledge, attitude, and hygiene practices (KAP) of food safety among street-cooked food handlers (SCFHs) in North Dayi District, Ghana. Methods This was a descriptive ...

  18. Navigating food safety: insights, innovations, and consumer ...

    This research emphasizes the importance of selecting the most suitable sampling method when assessing bacterial contamination during the slaughter process, as both methods proved valuable, each with its unique strengths and weaknesses. Such insights are vital for maintaining robust food safety practices within the meat processing industry.

  19. Public health risks related to food safety issues in the food market: a

    Food safety is an important issue that affects all of the world's people. Many countries throughout the world are increasingly interdependent on the availability of their food supply and on its safety. ... Research article: This paper examines the extent and consequences of renaming and mislabeling seafood, with particular attention to the ...

  20. Research Publications (Food Safety)

    Research Publications (Food Safety) This page tracks research articles published in national and international peer-reviewed journals. Recent articles are available ahead of print and searchable by Journal, Article Title, and Category.

  21. (PDF) Studies on Food Safety Management and It's Significance in

    Food safety means assurance that food is acceptable for human consumption according to its intended use and Food Safety Management System means the adoption of Good Manufacturing...

  22. Students' perceptions of a food safety and quality e ...

    Life long training and education in food safety is a crucial issue in particular for professionals working in the field. At the same time there is a need to evaluate the effectiveness of that training in particular when is given in e-learning. The purpose of this explorative work is to evaluate the Food Safety and Quality e-learning course within a Master program offered in the National ...

  23. Exploration of Food Security Challenges towards More Sustainable Food

    Introduction Food security (FS) is "a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life" [ 1] p.3.

  24. Investing in excellence: Milk quality and udder health training

    Quick summary. Following an appropriate milking routine has a profound effect on reducing mastitis and improving food safety and milk quality. Our research has shown that training of farm workers generates knowledge, satisfaction and a willingness to adhere to milking protocols resulting in quantifiably better milk quality, food safety and udder health.

  25. Food Labeling: Analysis, Understanding, and Perception

    The Special Issue " Food Labeling: Analysis, Understanding, and Perception " was conceived with the intention to further explore current efforts in food labeling research and welcomed original studies, as well as reviews of the literature, focusing on: (i) the analysis of the nutrient profile of products with different characteristics reported o...