FOOD SAFETY AWARENESS, PRACTICES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS: A STUDY OF HOME FOOD PREPARERS IN LUDHIANA DISTRICT
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Date
2011
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Abstract
A random selection of 240 home food preparers was done from rural and urban areas of Ludhiana District
and an enquiry was made about the awareness, practices and attitude towards food safety .The results
revealed that all the respondents were considerably aware about the food safety issues (9.25/15). High
mean awareness scores were found in case of respondents aged >45 years (10.05), post graduates
(12.60), and urban high income category (10.88). These categories also reported a better attitude towards
food safety. Outsourcing practices of branded and packed food items was more in case of urban areas as
compared to rural areas. A high practices score were found in urban high income category (105.20),
respondents aged >45 years (95.74) and post graduates (107.98). Food poisoning was the maximum
(41.47%) reported disease and majority of the cases were (59.38%) reported in rural areas. A significant
negative correlation was found between food safety awareness and practices with the incidence of food
borne diseases (p<0.01). In contrast, a significant positive correlation between food safety practices and
awareness (p<0.01) showed that the respondents with better food safety awareness were following good
food safety practices. The pesticide residue analysis of the food samples revealed the residues of nonrecommended
pesticides were found in the all vegetable samples. The mean practice and awareness score
of the respondents without microbial contamination in food samples was significantly higher than with
microbial contamination (p<0.01).Thus, a higher food safety awareness and practices can be instrumental
in reducing the microbial contamination in food but the presence/ absence of microbial contamination
did not affect the disease incidence.
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