Marjan Teymouri Yeganeh; Leila Teymoury Yeganeh
Abstract
AbstractBackground and Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, practice, and attitude of food health and safety in foodservice centers in Kermanshah province during the outbreak of COVID-19.Materials and Methods: This research is a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was used to collect ...
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AbstractBackground and Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the knowledge, practice, and attitude of food health and safety in foodservice centers in Kermanshah province during the outbreak of COVID-19.Materials and Methods: This research is a cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was used to collect data. To determine the reliability, the questionnaire was completed twice in one week. The questionnaire was organized into four sections including demographic information, knowledge section, attitude section, and performance section. In the first part, demographic information included gender, age, level of education, income, health, and satisfaction. In the second part, 7 two-option questions on knowledge were used. In the third part, 12 questions were used with a 5-point Likert scale, and in the performance part, 10 questions were considered with a 5-point Likert scale.Results: Observing the principles of health and food safety can minimize the possibility of contamination of food with any pathogen, especially the new coronavirus. In this regard, the mean score of the respondents' attitudes (67.51 ± 3.5) was estimated. This mean was estimated to be equal in the health sector (51.48 ± 3.7) and the safety sector (58.19± 6.7). Therefore, the safety sector score was higher than the health sector score. The mean performance score of the respondents (72.45± 4.1) was estimated. This mean was estimated to be equal in the health sector (49.31 ± 2.1) and the safety sector (65.2± 7.7). Therefore, the safety sector score was higher than the health sector score. The mean score of respondents' knowledge (54.6± 71.8) was estimated. This mean was estimated to be equal in the health sector (49.31± 2.1) and the safety sector (35.11± 5.7). Therefore, the score of the health sector was higher than the safety sector score.Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the knowledge, practice, and attitude of food health and safety in foodservice centers in Kermanshah province at the time of the outbreak of COVID-19 were relatively weak. Most of the respondents were not sufficiently aware of the microorganisms in the hands and nose, the importance of hand hygiene before and during food preparation and serving, the temperature of hot food storage, and the status of microorganisms in the refrigerator. This lack of awareness can create the condition for cross-contamination and increased growth of food-borne microorganisms during the outbreak of COVID-19.