Food safety knowledge and practices among Saudi women

Journal Article

, Mohamed F. Farahat , Mona M. El-Shafie , Mostafa Waly . 2015

• Publication Work Type: Article
• Publication Online URL: Food safety knowledge and practices among Saudi women
• Magazine \ Newspaper: Food Control
• Volume Number: 47
• Pages: 427 to 435

Publication Abstract

The present cross sectional study was conducted on 811 Saudi women to evaluate their food safety knowledge
and practices and explore factors affecting them. They reported better food safety practices than
knowledge in overall food safety and all parameters except cooking. Personal hygiene was the parameter
where they reported higher mean knowledge and practice (63.4% and 73.8%; respectively) with the lowest
mean knowledge score in utensils and equipment (49.8%) whereas the lowest mean practice (60.2%) was in
cooking. Saudi women with higher studies and those with 60 years and more showed higher mean
knowledge and practice score in overall food safety and most parameters than those in other educational
levels or age groups with significant variations (P < 0.05) among different educational levels except in
practicing personal hygiene. Working women showed higher mean knowledge and practice than non
working inall parameters with significant variationbetween theirmeanknowledge scores except inpersonal
hygiene. Launching a food safety education program and repeating it at specific intervals is recommended.