Knowledge and Practices of Food Safety among Senior Secondary School Students of International School, ObafemiAwolowo University, Ile- Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Food safety is a global public health concern. The problem of food safety not only affects human health but also causes the economic damage of nations. School children have been the foremost victim of food borne illnesses due to their unsafe behavior in food consuming. Knowledge and practices of food safety is very important among students since they are also consumers. Objective: The objectives of this study were to assess the level of knowledge and practices of food safety; to investigate the association of certain demographic characteristics with the level of food safety knowledge and practices and to determine the correlation between the food safety knowledge and practices among senior secondary school students of International School, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. Methods: This is a cross- sectional study which used a pre-tested 27- item, purpose designed, self- administered questionnaires to collect information on knowledge and practices of the respondents on food safety. Data were collated and analyzed based on descriptive and inferential study design. Results: The result showed that the total percentages of respondents with good level of food safety knowledge is 86.0% (339) with only 14.0% (55) respondents having poor food safety knowledge level as majority of the respondents 97.7% (385) also have high level of food safety practices with only 2.3% (9) of them having low practices on food safety. In addition, the result showed significant association between religion of the respondents and food safety knowledge scores and significant association between food safety practice scores and class of the students (p <0.05). The results also showed significant correlation between food safety knowledge and practices of the students (p <0.05). Conclusion: It was, therefore, concluded that the senior secondary school students of International School, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile- Ife, have good food safety knowledge and high food safety practices.