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Get rights and content Highlights•Good hygiene practices intervention in the form of training improved kitchen staff hygiene awareness scores.•Staff temperature and time monitoring for ready to eat (RTE) meals' significantly improved after training.•Microbiological contaminants (ACC, coliforms, yeast and moulds, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) in RTE meals reduced with a significant reduction in Aerobic Colony Count (ACC) and Staphylococcus aureus levels after training. AbstractEleven schools in three different hygiene categories were given hygiene training as an intervention to reported low hygiene standards. Staff hygiene knowledge scores, food temperature, food service time and microbiological quality of jollof rice (cooked rice in tomato sauce and fish) were measured before and after the intervention. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon's Signed-Rank Test for repeated measures on SPSS were used to evaluate the effect of GHP intervention. Staff hygiene knowledge and practice scores, food temperature, aerobic colony count (ACC) and Staphylococcus aureus load in ready to eat (RTE) meal improved significantly (p≤0.05). Food hygiene training remains an essential legal and industrial requirement.

Highlights: Food Safety hazards and effect in schools-Ghanaian Senior High Schools students' report 1. Seventy seven percent (77 %) of the sampled students ate school provided meals all or most of the time and 52 % had experienced foodborne infections between 3 to 12 times per academic year. 2.Foodborne illness affected students both academically and financially as 12% of students spent more than 5 days off school when sick and 10% spent between GHC 30.00->50.00 on medication. 3.A higher percentage of students who only sometimes ate school meals and supplemented with home meals, own stored food or bought from vendors on campus significantly (p<0.05) paid more or medication for FBD. 4.Food allergy and physical contaminants in food were predominant among hazards reported by students though poorly managed. Effectively cleaned utensils, hand washing facilities with detergents in dining hallsand kitchens and hot food were highly recommended GHPs by students.

a b s t r a c tThe demands and requirements of Food Laws remain the same internationally as food hazards present the same risks to individuals including school going age children and adolescents, however different nations with different economic and developmental issues differ in the level of importance attached to Food Law requirements. A questionnaire to assess good hygiene practices in schools in LincolnshireeUK and Ashanti Region of Ghana to compare compliance with training requirement in Food Laws was administered in 10 Lincolnshire and 45 Ashanti Region secondary schools. Whilst the demands on good hygiene practices remain stringently upheld in schools in the United Kingdom the same could not be said of Ghana. Although 60% of schools in Ashanti Region of Ghana fed between 1000 and 3000 students thrice a day, there was no evidence of food safety management system in all the schools. Staff food and personal hygiene practices including, temperature control, hand washing, avoidance of self-adornments, infectious disease control were substandard. A mandatory requirement by Food Laws in both countries for persons in supervisory position was not stringently complied with as 31% of kitchen matrons reported not to have hygiene qualification in the Ashanti Region of Ghana and 82% of 180 staff sampled had never received hygiene training. The absence of mandatory hygiene training for all food handlers, kitchen managers/matrons with requisite hygiene knowledge and qualification and rigorous enforcement of these remain challenges to good hygiene practices and Food Legislation in Ghana in addition to suitable facilities. The development of food hygiene training programmes towards mandatory certification at different levels of responsibility for the industry is required to help curb the identified challenges.