The Level of Awareness of Fast Food Operators on Food Safety and Hygiene Practices

Abstract

The growing fast food sector in the Ghanaian economy offers easy access to inexpensive food as well as new job opportunities for urban residents. While this development is positive in many ways, it also presents new public health challenges for the urban population. Maintaining safe food at the street level is a major concern to food control officers since outbreaks of most diarrheal diseases have been linked to street foods such as fast foods. This study concentrated on the level of awareness of fast food operators on food safety and hygiene practices in the Takoradi metropolis. Thirty-four fast food operators were selected through the stratified random sampling technique for extensive participant observations and to answer questionnaire. The study found out that although operators made up of the youth between the ages of 18 - 35 years demonstrated basic knowledge of food safety, the criteria used to define safe food by them did not emphasize basic hygiene practices such as hand washing, cleaning of utensils, washing of raw vegetables, and quality of ingredients. It also indicated that most (91.2%) of the operators had no background in catering education. The study therefore recommends that food control departments in the country should put in place measures to ensure that every operator found in the fast food business has some kind of knowledge on the basics of the trade.