Abstract:
food handling and sanitation practices. Thus, the study aimed to assess food handling practice and associated factors
among food handlers of Restaurants in Bahir Dar Town, northwest, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study was conducted
from December, 7/2012 to January, 2/2013 among food handlers working in 106 restaurants in Bahir Dar Town. A
structured questionnaire composed of socio-demographic factors, food safety knowledge, working environmental
characteristics and food hygiene practice of food handlers was employed to collect the data via interviewing and
observations. Binary logistic regression model was fitted to assess factors associated with food hygiene practice after
multi-collinearity and outlier were checked and data was clean. Both crude odds ratio (COR) and adjusted odds ratio
(AOR) were estimated to show the strength of association. In multivariate analysis, variables with a P value of ≤ 0.05
were considered as statistical significant.
Results: About 67.6% [95% confidence interval (CI) 58.8, 76.4] of food handlers had good food hygiene practice,
whereas 32.4% of food handlers had poor food hygiene practice. The odds of having good food hygiene practice was
higher among food handlers who had received food safety training [AOR: 4.7, 95% CI 1.7, 12.8], had formal education
[AOR: 6.4, 95% CI 3.5, 11.5] and work experiences greater than 2 years [AOR: 3.4, 95% CI 1.8, 6.4]. At last, food handlers
working in restaurants which had piped fountains for hand wash were 2.1 times more likely to have good food
hygiene practice[AOR: 2.1, 95% CI 1.1, 3.8].
Conclusion: In this study, the overall food hygiene practice of food handlers is not to the acceptable level. Therefore,
endeavors ought to be reinforced to improve food hygiene practices of food handlers through intervention programs
such as training and education. Also emphasis should be given on the accessibility of piped fountains for the better
food handling practice of food handlers.
Keywords: Food hygiene practice, Food handlers, Restaurants, Ethiopia
