ABSTRACT
Food hygiene is a subject of great concern to anyone who cares about eating healthy and staying alive because the import of food borne illness can occasionally be grave. This research work was carried out among food handlers in Ahmadu Bello University (A.B.U.), Zaria, Kaduna state of Nigeria; it sought to assess the level of knowledge of food hygiene among food handlers, attitude of food handlers towards hygiene, practice of food hygiene by food handlers, the nature and frequency of medical examination(s) the handlers undergo and to also to screen the food handlers to detect those who might be harbouring Salmonella species in their alimentary canal, an organism that can cause food poisoning under favourable conditions. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out involving 174 food handlers who met the inclusion criteria. Data was collected via the use of pre-tested questionnaires with the aid of research assistants and analysed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 15.0. The mean age of respondents was 34.47 � 13.92 years. Knowledge of food hygiene was good among the handlers (94.3%) likewise the attitude (75.9%) but good practice was practiced by very few food handlers (0.6%) whereas majority of them had fair practice (76.4%). More food handlers had periodic medical examination than those who had pre-employment medical examination; 67.1% and 28.3% respectively. Stool microscopy and culture revealed that 2 of the handlers were asymptomatic carriers of Salmonella, typhimurium and 1 handler was a carrier of Escherichia, coli. Statistical testing with Chi-square at p<0.05 showed that educational level of the handlers had no direct effect on the practice of food hygiene; likewise attitude of handlers towards food hygiene and duration of stay had no impact on food hygiene practices of food handlers. From observation, only a few of the handlers (36.4%) wash hand frequently in the course of handling food and only 22.7% of the food establishments, had 50% or more food handlers that wore protective over-clothing. It was concluded that practice of food hygiene was fair and a lot of effort has to be put in the areas of medical examination of the food handlers and personal hygiene like hand washing and wearing of protective cover-clothing.