Assessment of food handler’s knowledge, attitude and practices on food safety and hygiene in Kota Bharu

An abstract of the research paper presented to the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, in partial requirement on the course DVT 5436 – Research Project.
Food poisoning is one of the major public health problems in Malaysia with a lot of cases reported in Kelantan in the past few years which correlates to food handling safety and hygiene. In Kota Bharu, the issue of food safety and hygiene among food handlers has not been extensively studied. Thus, there is a strong need to expand on the literature of the current study. A cross-sectional study was conducted among food handlers in Kota Bharu to determine their level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of food safety and hygiene. 100 respondents were collected from various food premises in Kota Bharu. 62% are male respondent which mostly obtained from restaurants and averagely aged around 33 years old. Majority of them are vaccinated against typhoid and more than half had attended training on food safety. This study reveals a moderate level of knowledge (78%) with a high level of attitude (90%) and practices (81%) towards food safety. Thus, it is recommended to improve the knowledge on the safe handling in context of temperature and preparing the meats.
Keywords: Food Safety, Hygiene, Food Handlers, KAP study