The Effect of Food Safety and Hygiene Education on The Knowledge Levels of Tourism Students in Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to reveal the effect of food safety and hygiene lesson on the food safety knowledge level of the students studying in the tourism management department. The lesson has included hygiene, sanitation and food safety concepts, hygiene and sanitation in tourism businesses, personal hygiene, microbiological, physical and chemical degradation of foods, food safety systems. Questionnaire consisting of a total of forty questions on food and foodborne diseases, personnel hygiene, kitchen and equipment, contamination, temperature control, and food preservation was used as a data collection tool. The study was administered to tourism management and hospitality undergraduate students studying in Bilecik Seyh Edabali University. Students had the lowest range of food safety knowledge about temperature control and food preservation (20.6%-89.2%) on temperature control and food preservation before the food safety and hygiene lesson. In other groups, students showed a level of knowledge in the average 86.5%-92.8% range. The lesson showed a significant difference in all parts regarding the level of food safety knowledge. Overall, the current study has shown that gaps in food safety knowledge can be overcome with food safety and hygiene lesson.

Effectiveness of food safety and hygiene course for undergraduate students

“…In another study 83.3% of the students were aware that hands should be washed with disinfectant soap and warm running water after handling raw meat and vegetables. The research findings show that 16.7% did not have this information about hand hygiene (Cumhur, 2021).…”