Assessment of the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice about Food Safety among Saudi Population in Taif

Abstract

Foodborne diseases outbreaks continue to be problem indicating the failure of population to adhere to safe practices during food prepar-ation. Thus, this study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of food safety awareness among public Saudi population. This study involved 136 persons from Taif Saudia Arabia. The food safety KAP among 136 Saudi population was assessed using a questionnaire. The study involved 54.4% females and 45.6% males, 56.6% work outside health field and 43.4% in health care field,82.4% from urban area and 17.6% from rural area and 81% within the age group from 21-30 years old. 75.7% of the population had good attitude and practice towards health and food safety and washing hands before eating. Further population had low attitude on other related items such as unimportance of expire date in food safety 44.8%, unimportance of reading the instruction label on the caned food 59.5%, unimportance of checking the refrigerator temperature 77.9%, and unimportance of changing the cutting knife used between meat and vegetables cutting 66.9%. As regard knowledge, 61.8% of population had good knowledge about best temperature for bacterial growth which is between 4 to 50 °C and.About 73.5% of population had good knowledge about diseases that could be transmitted through food, but only 30.9% of population had knowledge about best method of meat thawing. In conclusion, the suggestion of this study was that Saudi population had adequate food safety knowledge, but perceived knowledge failed to be translated into practices, therefore necessary to hold training programs through workshops or to include courses in the schedule of ministry of health.