PRACTICE OF FOOD SAFETY AMONG FOOD HANDLERS IN BOARDING SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated food safety practice among food handlers in Bauchi State. The
population of the study is 317 food handlers in boarding secondary schools in Bauchi State).
Researcher's developed questionnaire named Food Safety Practice Questionnaire (FSPQ) was
used as instrument for data collection which was validated by three experts in Department of
Physical and Health Education and reliability index of 0.75 was obtained. Out of three hundred
and seventeen (317) copies of questionnaire administered, only three hundred and five (305)
were dully filled, returned and used for data analysis. Simple frequency counts and percentage
were used to organize and describe demographic information of the respondents while Chi-
square, independent t-test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at
0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that food handlers in boarding
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secondary schools in Bauchi State have improper food safety practice ( ÷ =,df: 1; P<0.05); there
is no significant difference between male and female food handlers on practice of food safety
(t=-.033, df:303; P>0.05); there is no significant difference on food safety practice among food
handlers in boarding secondary schools in Bauchi State based on their years of experience
(F=.060, df: 3, 300; P>0.05); It was therefore recommended among others that government
should ensure adequate and regular training of food handlers, and also institute a modality for
regular monitoring of food handlers in boarding secondary school in Bauchi State to ensure
effective food safety practices.