TITLE:
A Study to Assess Basic Food Safety Knowledge among University Students
AUTHORS:
Muhammad A. Halwani
KEYWORDS:
Food Safety, University Students, Medical Students, Saudi Arabia
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.14 No.6,
June
28,
2023
ABSTRACT: Background: University
students who visit off-campus university cafeterias during their academic life may lack some
basic food safety knowledge. Study Aim: To evaluate university students’
basic knowledge of food safety in off-campus cafeterias. To explore whether the knowledge
reported was influenced by the students’ educational backgrounds. Objects and Methods: Students from three different universities in Saudi
Arabia were included. University A represented medical majors, University B
represented a mix of both majors medical and non-medical, and University C represented
only non-medical majors. Data Collection: An electronic questionnaire was circulated among 500 university students
to evaluate their knowledge of food safety. The questionnaire had three main
sections covering the cafeteria’s location as a food serving area, staff
hygiene skills, and food preparation standards. The 5-point Likert scale
consists of the following points: yes, maybe, no, it does not matter, I do not
know. Only a “yes” answer indicated a positive response and proper awareness of the
subject. Results: A total of 408 students participated, and the results showed significant
differences in student knowledge between the three universities. In fact,
University A’s students had better overall knowledge than University C’s
students (0.001 54.4% to 87.3%. Finally, the positive responses for the third part of the
questionnaire which focused on food preparation, for 9 statements were 54.4% to
87.3%. Conclusion: Based on the overall comparison among universities, University A’s
students have more knowledge in food safety in comparison to University C’s.
University B’s students showed no significant difference with the latter two
universities. The overall results suggest that students’ educational
backgrounds can contribute effectively to the general knowledge of food safety.