• Veena Kumari
• Prof Deeksha Kapur

ABSTRACT Background: Food safety is a non negotiable element and is very critical. In India food safety is currently considered to be an important issue for all the stakeholders in the area of food production. This study was conducted to assess food safety knowledge, attitude and practices among food handlers at selected catering establishment in Delhi. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in 24 catering establishments in all the nine districts of Delhi from March to September 2017. A self administered questionnaire was used to assess 287 food handlers working in the selected catering establishment. Convenient sampling was used while selecting food handlers. The questionnaire was reviewed by industry and academic experts and pilot tested before the final version was distributed to the managers. The self administered questionnaire had four parts :First part had questions related to their socio demographic profiles and the second part contained 20 knowledge questions and was set up with 5 points for correct answers and 0 points for wrong answers with the maximum total possible score of 100 points. Third part contained 20 questions on attitude. A 5-point Likert Bipolar scale, from -2 point for strongly disagreed to +2 point for strongly agreed was used and it measures either positive or negative attitude. Fourth part of the questionnaire contained 20 Practices questions . A 5 Point scale was used to measure the food safety practices of the food handlers. For evaluation of knowledge, attitude and practices , a score ≥ 70% by an individual food handler was considered to be a passing criteria. Catering sector guidelines and foSTaC training material developed by FSSAI had been used to decide “correct” or “incorrect” answer.. Data Analysis : The SPSS version 20, statistical package was used for all analyses. Mean responses and percentages of responses in each category were calculated and presented in tabular form. Categorical data was analyzed using chi square, ANOVA (confidence interval 95%) were used to compare knowledge scores with demographic profile .Results: This study discovered a significant lack of knowledge in food safety, as only 29.61% of the surveyed respondents and only 4.8% demonstrated good knowledge and practices respectively. The mean knowledge ,attitude and practices scores of food handlers was 61.16±11.89 ,77.10±9.0 and 44.45±13.46 respectively. ANOVA tests showed significant difference (p<0.05) between the relationship of food handlers knowledge with their job titles only (F=4.1035, p<0.005). The study revealed statistically significant association between knowledge and attitudes (X1=143.6809, p<0.00001), attitudes and practices (X1=3273.1794, p<0.00001), and also knowledge and practices (X1=61.5318, p<00001). A positive correlation was also observed between knowledge and attitude scores (p value=0.000689, r=0.1992), between attitude and practices score (p=0.036124, r=0.1237) and also knowledge and practices score (p value=0.00001, r=0.2801) .The strongest positive correlation is between knowledge and practices score. Conclusions: Food handlers play a significant role in the prevention of foodborne disease and are the first line of defense to ensure food safety. Their low knowledge score and poor practices may contribute to cause food borne illness and outbreaks. The study revealed that more than half of the food handlers had never attended any training programmes . The researcher suggests that they must undergo continuous training session which is needed to produce safe and hygienic food. Through training their knowledge and practices can be improved as they have shown positive attitude towards food safety issues and training programmes.

Keywords: FSS Act, 2006 , Schedule 4, Food Safety, Time and Temperature, Thawing

"FOOD SAFETY, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES ASSESSMENT OF FOOD HANDLERS WORKING IN SELECTED CATERING ESTABLSIHMENTS IN DELHI", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no.328-345, January-2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901B42.pdf

"FOOD SAFETY, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES ASSESSMENT OF FOOD HANDLERS WORKING IN SELECTED CATERING ESTABLSIHMENTS IN DELHI", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 1, page no. pp328-345, January-2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1901B42.pdf