Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in restaurants in Kuwait

This study was conducted to evaluate the level of food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices among 402 food handlers in Kuwait restaurants. The information was collected through face to face interviews and questionnaires comprising four sections: demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes and practices. The results show that the majority of food handlers had sufficient knowledge 53.59 +/- 16.68 (70%) showing very good knowledge particularly about personal hygiene (93%). Areas of concern were lack of knowledge about cross-contamination and sanitation (68%), time and temperature control for food (63%), and food pathogens (51%). For attitudes, results show that respondents had excellent positive attitudes with a mean score of 69.12 +/- 9.97 (94%). Food handlers generally show very good practices 27.6 +/- 7.03 (82%) particularly in personal hygiene. However, a few areas of poor practice include cross-contamination as well as time and temperature control. A significant positive correlation was observed between knowledge with practices (rs = 0.536, P < 0.05), knowledge with attitudes (rs = 0.407, P < 0.05), practices with attitudes (rs = 0.317, P < 0.05) and knowledge with training (rs = 0.59, P < 0.05), attitudes with training (rs = 0.314, P < 0.05) and practices with training (rs = 0.30, P < 0.05). The study suggest that even though the knowledge, attitude and practice level of food handlers was satisfactory, some aspects related to crosscontamination, food pathogens and time and temperature control need to be stressed. Continuous food safety training for food handlers in Kuwait should become mandatory to strengthen food handlers in the areas which seem to be lacking. Training should not only focus on theoretical aspects of knowledge, but also be practical and foster positive attitudes towards food safety and promote good food safety practices.