Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP)‎ of the nutrition staff in three Sudanese hospitals

Abstract EN

The scope of this study was assess the food safety knowledge, attitudes practices (KAP) of the nutrition staff in three hospitals in Khartoum State, Sudan.

These hospitals were military and private hospital.

A cross-sectional study had been carried out using structured questionnaire to collect the needed data from a sample of 86 participants.

The results showed that nutrition staff’ knowledge level was adequate in terms of the cleaning and sanitization of the equipment (84%), hands-washing (81%), protection role of wearing gloves for patients/food service staff (84%).

While the level of knowledge, was poor regarding the concept of the danger zone of temperature and time limits as well as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) (40%), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs ) (17%), standardized recipe (15%) and good manufacturing practices (GMP) (22%).

The attitude of the nutrition staff is considered good when the food manager awareness about the food safety regulations is 84%, using (caps, masks, gloves and adequate clothing), minimizing the risk of food contamination around 97% and in the medical examination of food handlers is 93%.

Most of the practices of the participants of food safety were good.

The findings showed that the overall mean of KAP reached 62.27%±12.228.

However, there is a need to increase the food safety knowledge and education among the nutrition staff which may improve the work quality related to food safety.

In addition, there is a need for further studies related to food safety applications in Sudanese hospitals.