CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 25Food Safety and HygieneSalmonella and Campylobacter epidemiologyInfection Control in Healthcare

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Food Handlers in Restaurants in Malé, Maldives

Open access
Halim-Lim, Sarina Abdul, Mohamed, Khalisa, Sukki, Firdaus Muhammad, David, Wahyudi, Ungku Zainal Abidin, Ungku Fatimah, Jamaludin, Adi Ainurzaman·2023·Sustainability
DOI 10.3390/su151712695
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

Poor hygiene in the food service industry is a critical public health concern in the Maldives, and is caused by several issues, such as limited inspections and monitoring, inadequate training and knowledge, and a lack of a regulatory framework. Thus, this study aims to identify the levels of knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of food handlers in the Maldives as well as the potential association between the variables (knowledge, attitude, and practice). A total of 290 food handlers from restaurants were surveyed for four months through a quantitative questionnaire; most of them are male, Bangladeshi, and aged 26–35 years old. The result demonstrates that the food handlers have an acceptable level of knowledge (55.5% ± 1.51), an acceptable attitude (3.62 ± 0.51), and a good level of practice (4.18 ± 0.54) in food safety. The food handlers in Malé have poor practices in time and temperature control, especially in thawing and storage, resulting from a lack of training in the temperature danger zone. Work experience influences the level of knowledge, education impacts attitude and training, and work experience and education impact practice. A positive moderate association was observed between knowledge and practices (rs = 0.536, p < 0.05), knowledge and attitudes (rs = 0.407, p < 0.05), and practices and attitudes (rs = 0.317, p < 0.05). Despite the good scores obtained in practices from the self-report questionnaire, the results of the observational assessment made on 102 restaurants exhibit overall poor practices, including deficient time and temperature control, and other categories of food safety need further attention in the design of training processes. This study can help policymakers to review and improve law enforcement to address the current food safety situation in the Maldives and can help businesses to selectively plan food safety training based on the KAPs of Maldivian food handlers.

Overview

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.3390/su151712695

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Verification

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Citations

Cites

Research works printed but not linked: 35

  1. Mahmoud, 2018, Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in Lebanese hospitals: A cross-sectional study, Food Control, 94, 78, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2018.06.032 · DOI
  2. Zanin, 2017, Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in food safety: An integrative review, Food Res. Int., 100, 53, 10.1016/j.foodres.2017.07.042 · DOI · Paper page
  3. Dagnew, M., Tiruneh, M., Moges, F., and Tekeste, Z. (2012). Survey of nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus and intestinal parasites among food handlers working at Gondar University, Northwest Ethiopia. BMC Public Health, 12. · DOI
  4. Santiago, 2016, Food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers, head chefs and managers in hotels’ restaurants of Salvador, Brazil, Food Control, 73, 372
  5. Gould, 2013, Contributing factors in restaurant-associated foodborne disease outbreaks, FoodNet sites, 2006 and 2007, J. Food Prot., 76, 1824, 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-13-037 · DOI
  6. Grace, D. (2015). Food Safety in Developing Countries: An Overview. A Learning Resource for DFID Livelihoods Advisers about Evidence on Demand and Professional Development, CGIAR. · DOI
  7. Ncube, 2020, Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of restaurant food handlers in a lower-middle-income country, Food Sci. Nutr., 8, 1677, 10.1002/fsn3.1454 · DOI · Paper page
  8. Siow, 2014, Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers on food safety in food service operations at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Food Control, 37, 210, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2013.09.036 · DOI
  9. Akintaro, 2012, Food Handling, Hygiene and the Role of Food Regulatory Agencies in Promoting Good Health and Development in Nigeria, Int. J. Health Med. Inf., 1, 1
  10. Alqurashi, N.A., Priyadarshini, A., and Jaiswal, A.K. (2019). Evaluating food safety knowledge and practices among foodservice staff in Al Madinah Hospitals, Saudi Arabia. Safety, 5. · DOI
  11. Fariba, 2018, Knowledge, attitude, and practice among food handlers of semi-industrial catering: A cross sectional study at one of the governmental organizations in Tehran, J. Environ. Health Sci. Eng., 16, 249, 10.1007/s40201-018-0312-8 · DOI
  12. Zhang, 2022, The disparity between self-reported and observed food safety behavior: A case involving consumers from rural China, Food Control, 138, 108981, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2022.108981 · DOI
  13. Ahmed, 2021, Cross-sectional study on food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food handlers in Lahore district, Pakistan, Heliyon, 7, e08420, 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e08420 · DOI
  14. Nee, 2011, Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices (KAP) among food handlers at residential colleges and canteen regarding food safety, Sains Malays., 40, 403
  15. Salikin, 2018, An Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices in Food Safety Among Food Handlers Engaged in Food Courts, Curr. Res. Nutr. Food Sci. J., 6, 346, 10.12944/CRNFSJ.6.2.09 · DOI
  16. Sidhu, 2019, Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers in restaurants in Kuwait, Food Control, 103, 103, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2019.03.040 · DOI
  17. Lee, H., Abdul Halim, H., Thong, K., and Chai, L. (2017). Assessment of Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, Self-Reported Practices, and Microbiological Hand Hygiene of Food Handlers. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health, 14. · DOI
  18. Auad, L.I., Ginani, V.C., Stedefeldt, E., Nakano, E.Y., Nunes, A.C.S., and Zandonadi, R.P. (2019). Food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Brazilian food truck food handlers. Nutrients, 11. · DOI · Paper page
  19. Lim, 2015, Towards a conceptual roadmap for statistical process control implementation in the food industry, Trends Food Sci. Technol., 44, 117, 10.1016/j.tifs.2015.03.002 · DOI
  20. Soares, 2012, A Training Course on Food Hygiene for Butchers: Measuring Its Effectiveness through Microbiological Analysis and the Use of an Inspection Checklist, Food Control, 27, 206, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2012.03.016 · DOI
  21. Griffith, 2005, Are we making the most of food safety inspections?, A glimpse into the future. Br. Food J., 107, 132
  22. Rifat, 2022, Food safety knowledge and practices among food handlers in Bangladesh: A systematic review, Food Control, 142, 109262, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2022.109262 · DOI
  23. Mosilhey, 2016, Cross-sectional study on food safety knowledge, attitude and practices of male food handlers employed in restaurants of King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, Food Control, 59, 212, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.05.002 · DOI
  24. Moreb, 2017, Knowledge of food safety and food handling practices amongst food handlers in the Republic of Ireland, Food Control, 80, 341, 10.1016/j.foodcont.2017.05.020 · DOI
  25. Robinson, 2016, Adequate Hand Washing and Glove Use Are Necessary to Reduce Cross-Contamination from Hands with High Bacterial Loads, J. Food Prot., 79, 304, 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-15-342 · DOI
  26. Montville, 2001, Glove Barriers to Bacterial Cross-Contamination between Hands to Food|Enhanced Reader, J. Food Prot., 64, 845, 10.4315/0362-028X-64.6.845 · DOI
  27. Bintsis, 2017, Foodborne pathogens, AIMS Microbiol., 3, 529, 10.3934/microbiol.2017.3.529 · DOI · Paper page
  28. Pereira, 2019, The differences between observed and self-reported food safety practices: A study with food handlers using structural equation modeling, Food Res. Int., 125, 108637, 10.1016/j.foodres.2019.108637 · DOI
  29. Griffith, 2010, The assessment of food safety culture, Br. Food J., 112, 439, 10.1108/00070701011034448 · DOI
  30. Jenner, 2006, Discrepancy between self-reported and observed hand hygiene behaviour in healthcare professionals, J. Hosp. Infect., 63, 418, 10.1016/j.jhin.2006.03.012 · DOI
  31. Malavi, 2017, Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Orange-Fleshed Sweetpotato Puree Handlers in Kenya, Food Sci. Qual. Manag., 67, 54
  32. Hashanuzzaman, 2020, Assessment of food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of fish farmers and restaurants food handlers in Bangladesh, Heliyon, 6, e05485, 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05485 · DOI
  33. Lim, S.A.H., and Antony, J. (2013, January 10–13). A conceptual readiness framework for statistical process control (SPC) deployment. Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Bangkok, Thailand. · DOI
  34. Subramaniyam, M., Halim-Lim, S.A., Mohamad, S.F.B., and Priyono, A. (2021, January 13–16). Digital supply chain in the food industry: Critical success factors and barriers. Proceedings of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Singapore. · DOI
  35. Azalanzazllay, N.N., Abdul Halim-Lim, S., Ungku Zainal Abidin, U.F., and Priyono, A. (2020, January 14–17). Gearing Food Manufacturing Industry Towards Lean Six Sigma Implementation: An Exploratory Study on Readiness Factors. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Singapore. · DOI

Metadata

Authors
Halim-Lim, S. A., Mohamed, K., Sukki, F. M., David, W., Ungku Zainal Abidin, U. F., & Jamaludin, A. A.
Affiliations
  • Department of Food Technology, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
  • Food Control Division, Maldives Food and Drug Authority, Ministry of Health, Malé 20184, Maldives
  • School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment, Edinburgh Napier University, Edinburgh EH10 5DT, UK
  • Bakrie University (ID)
  • Department of Food Service and Management, Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Malaysia
  • University of Malaya (MY)
Corresponding author
Mohamed, Khalisa
ORCID
Venue
Sustainability
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2023-08-22
Volume
15
Issue
17
Pages
12695
ISSN
2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3390/su151712695
OpenAlex
W4386073954
Cited by
25
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 11 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2
FWCI
3.32
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Preprints.org (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • Edinburgh Napier Research Repository (Edinburgh Napier University) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
  • Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository (Universiti Putra Malaysia) (submittedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
Funders
Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (FRGS/1/2022/SS02/UPM/02/1)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Safety and Hygiene
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Infection Control in Healthcare
Keywords
food safety, food handlers, knowledge, attitudes and practices, restaurants, food hygiene, food safety training, work experience, educational attainment, food safety regulation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review