Determination of Awareness Regarding Food Safety Among Students and Staff Members of University of Lahore

Abstract: Food hygiene are the conditions and measures necessary to ensure the safety of food from production to consumption. Lack of adequate food hygiene can lead to food borne diseases and death of the consumer. Objective: To determine the awareness regarding food safety among students and staff members of University of Lahore. Methods: The cross-sectional study was carried out at The University of Lahore, Defence Road Campus and study completed within 9 months. A convenient sampling technique was used to collect sample. Data were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire from 384 subjects including students, teaching and non-teaching staff members as well as lower staff. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 22.0. Frequencies were calculated and results were shown in tabular and graphical form. Results: More than 90% of participants were aware of importance of washing hands with soap and water and had good hand washing practices. About 90% of them were aware of personal hygiene practices. Males had 86% awareness about cooking techniques on food quality where females had 97% awareness. Males had less knowledge about cooking protocols (31%) then females (41%). Knowledge about storing food was also less in males (41%) then females (62%). Conclusions: The level of awareness among all participants was high and there was no considerable difference among gender and profession regarding food safety awareness. Males tend to have less knowledge about cooking and storing food than females. Key words: Food Safety, Personal Hygiene, Foodborne illness, World Health Organization, Food processing and storage.