Assessing the Safety of Hotel Food: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Food Handlers

Abstract

Food safety is of global public health concern. Hotels and their restaurants provide hospitality like accommodation and food services and are spearheaded by food handlers who have varied experiences. This study was undertaken to examine knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) on food safety and explore knowledge-practice gaps among food handlers at hotels in Ghana. There were 233 participants, including 205 food handlers, 10 managers/chefs, and 18 regulatory officials, who were at post after the COVID-19 restrictions were eased on hotel and restaurant activities. Data were gathered through questionnaire with food handlers and face-to-face interview with managers/chefs and officials of the regulatory agencies. Frequencies and percentages, and Wilcoxon signed ranked test were employed to analyse the data. The knowledge on food safety was moderate, 58 ± 0.169, and 82% of the food handlers portrayed positive attitude towards food safety, while only 42.8% demonstrated good food safety practices. There was significant variance between knowledge and practice such that food handlers’ food safety knowledge did not reflect in their daily practices, yet most of the food handlers had training prior to being employed. Many people may be eating contaminated foods from hotels that may increase the rate of food-borne illnesses. We suggest continuous training in transmission of food-borne diseases and time and temperature control, and that the training should be obligatory to reinforce food handlers’ KAP. In addition, managers need to intensify their collaborations with the regulators to improve monitoring and supervision activities at the hotels.