Food Safety Knowledge and Practices among Primary Food Preparers of under-5 Children in an Urbanized Village of Delhi

Introduction Food safety aims at ensuring that all food is as safe as possible. Children under 5 years of age carry 40 % of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year. Aim and objectives To assess the knowledge and practices regarding food safety in primary food preparers of under-5 children residing in Aliganj, field practice area of Vardhmann Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital. Materials and methods A community based cross sectional study was conducted among Primary food preparers for children under 5 years of age residing in Aliganj. Total of 110 food preparers were interviewd using a pre tested semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Results All the primary food preparers in the study were housewives, majority 54.5 % belonged to 20-25 years, 87.3 % women were literate, 95 (86.3 %) were homemaker and 71 (64.5 %) belonged lower middle class. Majority of women had correct knowledge and practice regarding separation of raw and cooked food, storing food in covered containers in fridge (57 %), 33 % had correct knowledge of storing food within 2 hrs. Most of women had correct knowledge regarding reheating of stored food before heating 83 (75.5 %) and practice 65 ( 73.5 %) but 13 (17.8 %) practiced reheating food to correct temperature. Conclusion There was found to be good practice and knowledge of separating raw and cooked food while a poor practice regarding storage, temperature of reheating stored food, reuse and reheating of cooking oil.