Evaluating levels of knowledge and food safety practices among Italian food handlers

This study was designed as a cross-sectional survey and conducted between July 2021 and Febraury 2022 among a sample of the food-handlers (FHs) working in three regions (i.e., Calabria, Campania and Sicily) of the South part of Italy. The present research aims to assess the extent of knowledge and food safety practices among FHs, to prevent food risks. A two-stage cluster random sampling strategy was used. Each Region was divided into cities and one city was randomly selected within each Region. Then from a publicly available frame, 30 food businesses (clusters) were randomly selected within each city. All FHs working at the selected food business were approached and invited to participate in the study. The final questionnaire was designed to be completed within fifteen minutes and it consisted of 33 questions grouped into five sections. The first section collected sociodemographic and professional characteristics . The second section was designed to evaluate the FHs’ knowledge about FBIs and food safety. The third section explored the adherence to proper food-handling practices to prevent food cross-contamination, personal protective equipment (PPE) use, hand hygiene (HH) and keeping food at safe temperatures. The last section investigated sources of information about food safety, satisfaction with these sources, and the need to receive further information on foodborne illenesses.