FOOD SAFETY KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF CHOPBAR WORKERS IN THE KOMENDA EDINA EGUAFO ABIRIM MUNICIPALITY OF GHANA

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to examine the level of knowledge and attitudes of chopbar workers towards food safety. The study also examined the food safety practices among chopbar workers in KEEA Municipality and find out the relationship between chopbar workers’ food safety knowledge and food safety practices. Cluster sampling and purposive sampling procedures were employed to sample 147 chopbar workers in the Municipality to respond to a researcher-designed instrument. Pie chart, frequency distribution table and Goodman-Kruskal’s Gamma test were the tools used to analyse all four research questions. The study revealed that 54% (n = 79) and 43% (n = 63) of the respondents have moderate and low level of knowledge respectively and 3% (n = 4) have high knowledge level on food safety. Also 84% (n = 124) of the respondents showed positive attitude and only 16% (n = 23) exhibited negative attitude towards food safety. On practices 7% (n = 10) of the respondents demonstrated good food safety practices while 65% (n = 95) and 28% (n = 42) exhibited moderate and bad food safety practices respectively. Goodman-Kruskal’s Gamma test of 0.4687 showed a positive relationship between knowledge level on food safety and food safety practices. The study concludes that chopbar workers may not be able to comply with measures which will ensure food safety. Consumers of these chopbars in the Municipality are likely to eat contaminated food that can lead to foodborne diseases and in some cases lead to death and lastly chopbar workers who have higher knowledge on food safety will invariably affect their food safety practices positively.