Food safety knowledge and practices among university students in the northern region of Ghana
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Food safety knowledge and practices are necessary for eliminating food borne diseases, however, there is a scarcity of information on food safety knowledge and practices among young adults in the Northern Region of Ghana. This research was therefore aimed at assessing the food safety knowledge and practices of university students in the Northern region of Ghana and to determine if any relationship exists between their food safety knowledge and practices and their socio-demographic and academic characteristics A cross-sectional study was carried out where data was collected from 397 randomly selected students of the University for Development Studies and Tamale Technical University using a questionnaire. Data was analyzed using SPSS V20. Results showed that 54.4% had good level of food safety knowledge, 38.5% had moderate level of food safety knowledge and 7.1% had poor levels of food safety knowledge. Similarly, students also showed 46.3%, 39.3% and 14.4% levels of good, moderate and poor food safety practices, respectively. The department and level of study significantly influenced (P < 0.05) the food safety knowledge of participants, however no demographic characteristics influenced (P > 0.05) the food safety practices of the participants. The findings from this study suggest the need for increased effort on how to guide students to translate their food safety knowledge into practice. Innovative and creative approaches should be applied to food safety education to increase practice since the students showed good food safety knowledge than food safety practice.
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Ten studies relied solely on self-reporting.
“In contrast, 10 studies relied solely on self-reporting [49,51,53,54,57,58,65,70,71,72].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Among the 16 studies that described sampling methodology, five used simple random sampling, four convenience sampling, two multi-stage random sampling, two voluntary response sampling, two purposive sampling, and one both non-probability and snowball sampling.
“Among these, five studies were conducted with simple random sampling [48,49,54,69,70], four [47,58,59,60] with convenience sampling, two [61,64] with multi-stage random sampling, two [67,68] with voluntary response sampling, two [56,63] purposive sampling, and one [57] with both non-probability and snowball sampling techniques.”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Seven studies focused on university students, two on school children, four on street food consumers, five on meat consumers, one on vegetable consumers, and one on milk consumers.
“Seven studies focused on university students [49,53,54,58,60,65,72], two studies were on school children [70,71], four studies on street food consumers [57,62,67,68], five studies on meat consumers [50,56,59,64,66], and one study each on vegetable [48] and milk consumers [61].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Ten studies measured both food safety knowledge and practices.
“Ten studies [47,49,51,53,54,58,64,69,70,72] measured both food safety knowledge and practices, while three studies measured both knowledge and attitudes [63,67,68].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Several studies reported good or satisfactory knowledge levels.
“Several studies reported good or satisfactory knowledge levels [49,50,51,52,57,58,60,63,68], while other studies described knowledge as average or mixed [47,55,61,62,67,71].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
One study found that more than half of Ghanaian students demonstrated good understanding of cross-contamination and handwashing practices.
“One study [58] found that more than half of Ghanaian students demonstrated good understanding of cross-contamination and handwashing practices.”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Other studies found no significant link between education and food safety outcomes.
“Other studies [48,50,51,53,58,67] found no significant link between education and food safety outcomes.”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Four studies reported good practices.
“In contrast, one study reported generally satisfactory food safety practices [71], and four studies reported good practices [47,49,58,70].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Seven studies showed that respondents' knowledge was better than their self-reported practices.
“However, seven studies showed that respondents’ knowledge was better than their self-reported practices [49,51,52,53,54,58,64].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Employment status was significantly associated with knowledge and practice in several contexts, including among pregnant women, general consumers, and university students.
“Employment status was significantly associated with knowledge and practice in several contexts, including among pregnant women [51], general consumers [62], and university students [54,58].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Other studies found no significant gender-based differences in knowledge or attitude.
“while others found no significant gender-based differences in knowledge or attitude [51,57,58,60,62,67,68,70].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
Among the 15 studies which assessed practices, the majority found that practices were poor among consumers, while only limited studies reported good, satisfactory, or very good practices.
“Among the 15 studies (e.g., [53,54,58]) which assessed practices, the majority found that practices were poor among consumers, while only limited studies reported good [47,58,70], satisfactory [71], or very good practices [49].”
From Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of Urban Consumers in Low-Income and Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LLMICs): A Scoping Review (2026) · cites this paper as [58]
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“Ten studies [47,49,51,53,54,58,64,69,70,72] measured both food safety knowledge and practices, while three studies measured both knowledge and attitudes [63,67,68].”
Influential
- Authors
- Lawal, M., Adzitey, F., Ayamdoo, J., Damba, Y., & Zakaria, R.
- Affiliations
- Federal University of Technology Minna (NG)
- University for Development Studies (GH)
- ORCID
- Adzitey, F
- Venue
- Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences
- Publisher
- African Journals Online (AJOL)
- Published
- 2023-08-12
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 70-89
- ISSN
- 1597-1074 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4386542287
- Cited by
- 3
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1
- FWCI
- 0.43
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Journal of Agriculture and Food Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- 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 › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Keywords
- food safety knowledge, food safety practices, university students, food poisoning, knowledge-practice gap, food safety education, sociodemographic factors, Northern Region of Ghana
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