Knowledge and good food handling practices for products of animal origin in the home setting

Abstract Good food handling practices should be adopted in the home setting, as inadequate practices could lead to the outbreak of foodborne illnesses. The aim of the present study was to investigate knowledge and good food handling practices for products of animal origin by consumers in the home setting and test associations with the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. A questionnaire was answered by a non-probabilistic sample. The questionnaire was available online on free access digital platforms for seven days and was used to collect information on the gender, age, income, and schooling of the respondents as well as safe food handling practices in the home setting. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics and the chi-square test to compare the frequencies of the answers per category. A total of 666 responses were obtained. Most respondents were women, had a university/college education, were between 30 and 59 years of age, and had an income of more than four times the monthly minimum wage. The majority of respondents reported positive practices and attitudes regarding food handling in the home setting; 99.5% washed their hands prior to handling food, 89% performed the cooking of animal products and 85.6% washed the cutting surface after cutting each food. Associations were found between some attitudes reported by consumers and the categories of gender, age, schooling, and income (p ≤ 0.05). Women had more good food handling practices compared to men. The results suggest that most respondents practiced good food handling practices. Safe practices were related to the level of schooling, monthly income and age of the participants.