Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among restaurant's staff in Jordan: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

PurposePeople with food allergies rely to a great extent on restaurant staff to have a safe meal. The purpose of this paper is to acquire novel data to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and practices of food allergy among the restaurant's staff and factors that could be associated with these domains.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional study involving 306 restaurant staff in Amman City, Jordan was conducted using a validated self-reported questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors independently associated with knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP).FindingsThe results showed that most restaurant staff had moderate to excellent knowledge, positive attitudes, low to moderate risk practices regarding food allergy. Knowledge level was significantly associated with the staff's age, position, education level and restaurant class. Further, attitude level was significantly associated with staff age, experience, gender, education level, restaurant class and whether the restaurant held food safety certificates. Similarly, staff behavioral practices were significantly associated with staff position, restaurant class and the presence of valid food safety certificates.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that more training for the staff in restaurants would be associated with a lower risk of providing unsafe meals.Originality/valueThis study demonstrated the need for the pre-employment theoretical and practical tests for restaurants’ staff to determine their knowledge level and provide them mandatory developing training programs to support and facilitate food allergy risk management and to develop food allergy policies.

Food allergies and allergens in Lebanon: Characterization and perceptions toward labeling

“…This is in agreement with results of other studies, which stated that having a higher level of education was associated with a greater knowledge of food allergies and food labelling. 11 , 25 …”

“…These results are in line with a Jordanian study where females had better attitudes towards food allergies than males. 11 This is due to females having higher levels of empathy and being more invested in nutritional issues than males. 25 Those aged 18 to 34 were found to check nutritional claims related to food allergies more frequently than other age groups (p-value = 0.021) as seen in Table 5 .…”

Food allergy knowledge, attitude and management among preschool personnel in Malaysia

“…The significant associations between attitude and age in the present study are consistent with a study conducted in Jordan, which indicated that school personnel who were older or potentially who had more years of experience, were associated with more positive attitudes. 44 Attitude represents beliefs that can act as an agent between knowledge and practice, 45 and selfefficacy can be improved through food allergy training and education workshops. 40 This may be one of the reasons for the negative level of attitude shown in the present study because only 26.4% of the participants had attended food allergy training.…”

A Study of Food Allergy Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of Restaurant Employees

“…In Alexandria, Egypt, a developed self-administered questionnaire derived from previous related studies to assess food allergy KAP among restaurant employees (e.g. Ajala et al, 2010;Loerbroks et al, 2019;Elsahoryi et al, 2021). An independent translator with substantial experience in tourism and hospitality education developed the questionnaire in English and then translated it into Arabic.…”

“…The study revealed that 58% of respondents had not received any training on food allergies, while 35% believed that high heat could destroy allergens, and 25% believed that allergens could be safely removed from finished meals. This lack of knowledge could prevent food service employees from accommodating customers or responding to their questions and special requests appropriately (Shafie & Azman, 2015;Dupuis et al, 2016;Radke et al, 2016;Elsahoryi et al, 2021;Nasseredine et al, 2021). Also, non-coordinated employees may not follow safe food handling procedures in the kitchen if they are unaware of the severity of allergies.…”