Abstract
Background
Early childhood care and proper nutrition play a significant role in a child's development. Poor food handling practices may potentially result in foodborne illnesses and even death. Children are more prone to such illnesses as they are still developing.
Aim and Objectives
This study sought to determine the levels of food safety practices at registered Early Childhood Development Centres within the eThekwini communities with the objective of assessing the knowledge, practices, and behaviour of food handlers at these premises as well as determining the relationship between the demographic data, knowledge and behaviour of food handlers at the ECD centres.
Methodology
This cross-sectional study was conducted at Early Childhood Development Centres in Durban, Kwa Zulu Natal Province. Using convenience sampling 160 food handlers from 61 ECDs participated in the study. The data was collected using the World Health Organization's 5 Keys to Safer Foods self-administered questionnaire and analyzed for frequencies, means, and relationships using Chi-square analysis.
Results
The results showed that 100% (n=160) of the food handlers understood the importance of handwashing prior to handling foodstuffs, demonstrating compliance with basic hygiene principles. Various gaps were noted as 25% (n=40) of food handlers incorrectly believed that the same cutting board could be used for raw and cooked foodstuffs if it appears clean whilst 31.3% (n=50) were unaware of the need to separate raw and cooked food during storage. Significant correlations (p=0.017) were found between awareness of wiping cloth contamination and the notion that foods should be thrown out once they have
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passed their expiration date and between cleaning surfaces and equipment before using them again for different foods (p=0.007).
Conclusion
The results highlight the need for tailored food safety interventions for food handlers and indicate the need for environmental health practitioners to conduct such training focusing on microorganisms, temperature control of foods and cross-contamination to improve the safety of food at ECD centres.