Knowledge and Practice of People in Kermanshah Regarding Food Hygiene and Safety

Paying attention to the hygiene and safety of food will have a great success for people around the world. In recent decades, due to mass production and food processing, the globalization of food trade, industrialization, etc., the prevalence of diseases associated with contaminated water and food is increasing. Therefore, the study of knowledge and attitude of people in this field have been a necessity and this research was conducted to investigate the knowledge and practice of people of Kermanshah city, Iran in relation to food hygiene and safety.
This was a cross-sectional study. Data were collected through questionnaires. 252 inhabitants of Kermanshah were randomly allocated by cluster sampling. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 17 by Spearman and X2 test.
Most of Kermanshah people were lack of proper knowledge and practice about food poisoning. Of these, 54% of people mistakenly thought that fully cooked foods also have microbes. In addition, 68.3% of the subjects did not have a proper health function regarding the consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, so that they only cleaned it before consumption. Finally, the mean score of knowledge and practice was 11.62 ± 2.27 and 17.69 ± 1.59, respectively.
Considering the significant correlation between the level of knowledge and practice of the people living in Kermanshah about food safety, the necessity of conducting appropriate educational programs to increase the awareness and subsequently improve the performance of the related organs can upgrade status.