Food Hygiene Practices And Associated Factors Among Food Handlers In Food Establishments In Jimma City, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, food hygiene has become an issue of global attention due to its high impact on human health as well as its adverse effects on socioeconomic productivity. It is important to recognize the worth of food handlers’ hygienic practices at food establishments in order to achieve community health. However, little is known about hygiene practices of food handlers and the factors associated with in the study area. Objective: This study aimed to assess food hygiene practices and associated factors among food handlers working in food establishments in Jimma City, Southwest Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted using a simple random sampling technique to select a total of 316 food handlers. Food hygiene practice and relevant features were collected from May to June, 2023 through interviews using a semi-structured questionnaire. After the interviews hand swabs were collected to isolate of selected bacteria and immediately transferred to the microbiology lab for laboratory examinations. The swab samples were cultured and identified using standard operating procedures. The data were entered into Epi data and exported to SPSS (Statistics 29, Amos 26) for further analysis. Binary logistic regression was then used, with a p-value ≤ 0.05 considered as an associated factor. Results: The results showed that only 28.4% of study participants had good food hygiene practices. Similarly, laboratory analysis displayed that 45.1% of study subjects tested positive for one or more bacterial contaminations. This also indicates that the majority of food handlers did not follow safe food handling practices. Determinant factors of food hygiene practices were: their role as waiter (AOR=0.48,95%CI:0.23,0.99), the type of food establishment(bar and restaurant) (AOR = 0.37, 95% CI:0.15,0.88) and snack houses (AOR = 0.16, 95%CI:0.06,0.44), being negative for isolated bacteria (AOR = 2.95,95% CI:1.42,6.13), having a positive attitude (AOR = 2.32,95% CI :1.13,4.73) and having good knowledge (AOR = 8.23,95% CI:4.03,16.78) toward food hygiene. Moreover, the commitment of participants and communication among management constructs positively and significantly affect food handlers’ hygiene practice in food establishments. Conclusion: The majority (71.6%) of food handlers’ hygiene practices were poor in the current study. Food establishments should be concerned about their employee’s food hygiene through health education and effective management practices such as maintaining better communication and having committed food handlers in order to improve good hygienic practices.