Development and assessment of health education program regarding food safety among food handlers at Ain Shams university hospitals, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Food safety at hospitals is of significant importance for the recovery and wellbeing of patients. Reasons beyond unsafe food at hospitals may be related to consumption of food contaminated with microorganisms or their toxins, which may result from unsafe sources, inadequate cooking or unhygienic practices during food preparation, handling and storage. Objectives: to identify the baseline knowledge and food handling practices of food safety among the food handlers in Ain Shams University Hospitals (ASU), and to develop a health education program about food safety for the food handlers and assess its outcome in ASU Hospitals. Method: one arm intervention study was carried out at the kitchens of ASU hospitals.  All food handlers (n=75) in ASU hospital kitchens were recruited in this study. The study was carried out in three phases, the first phase was evaluation of baseline knowledge and practices of participants using self-administered questionnaire and on site observation checklist (Pre-intervention phase), the second phase was health education program for food handlers (Intervention phase) which included several activities such as power point lecture, demonstration, playing video, interactive discussion and distribution of brochures.