A Questionnaire-Based Survey on Food Safety Knowledge during Food-Handling and Food Preparation Practices among University Students

The objective of the study was to assess the level of food safety handling knowledge and practices among university students and to explore the association between their knowledge/practices and the socio-demographic and academic characteristics. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in the University of Agriculture Peshawar. They completed a questionnaire containing six question of food safety grouped into two subsections: food microbiology/ cross-contamination and food storage (chilling). Students from faculties delivering health-related programs significantly outperformed those from humanity-sciences programs on food safety knowledge during food preparation practices. Females obtained considerably better food-handling scores than males. An educational background relevant to food safety was a significant predictor of responding accurately to a wide range of study questions. These results substantiate the need for educational initiatives tailored to develop the food safety knowledge and food-handling practices of students of university of agriculture Peshawar.