A structured questionnaire was adopted from previous published research articles in order to meet the objective of this study [17-19 (link)]. The language of the questionnaire was translated to the local language (Amharic) in which all the participants can communicate. After pre-testing the questionnaire at a neighbour town (Harar) of the study area with 20 meat handlers the last version was prepared.
The questionnaire structured into four distinct parts including demographic information such as respondents’ sex, age, years of experience, responsibility/duty, income, employment status, having health certificate and attending food safety training. The second section of the questionnaire is about food safety knowledge. Questions on knowledge referred to their personal hygiene, cross-contamination, causes and symptoms of food borne diseases, and time temperature control. It contains 22 close-ended questions and each question has three optional answers (“Yes”, “No” and “I do not know”). The response was analyzed as categorical variables (right or wrong answer). A score of one was given to right answer and zero to the wrong and I do not know answer. A scale ranging between 0 and 22 which representing the total number of questions on food safety knowledge. Meat handlers that got overall score ≤ 14 points were considered to have “unsatisfactory” and those scored ≥ 15 points (≥ 68 % accuracy) “satisfactory” knowledge of food safety.
The third part of the questionnaire was about food safety attitude of meat handlers. It comprises 20 questions about hand washing, cross contamination, food handling, storage etc. In this section, the respondents’ answers were “agree”, “disagree”, and “don’t know”. The response was analyzed as categorical variables (right or wrong answer). A score of one was given to right answer and zero to the wrong and I do not know answer. Each correct answer was given one point whereas incorrect answer including the answer I do not know was awarded zero point. For evaluation, food-handlers that answered 14 or more questions correctly were measured to have “good” attitude whereas respondents answer 13 or less questions correctly were measured to have “poor” attitude.
The last section dealt with food hygiene practices. The question comprises the issues of personal hygiene, hand washing practices, practices against food borne diseases and cross contamination. This section had 20 questions with two possible responses: “yes”, and “no”. Each correct practice reported scored one (1) point. For evaluation, a score ≥ 70% that means food-handlers practiced 14 or more out of 20 hygienic practices which are listed in the questions was considered as having “good” food hygienic practice [20 (link)].
The questionnaire structured into four distinct parts including demographic information such as respondents’ sex, age, years of experience, responsibility/duty, income, employment status, having health certificate and attending food safety training. The second section of the questionnaire is about food safety knowledge. Questions on knowledge referred to their personal hygiene, cross-contamination, causes and symptoms of food borne diseases, and time temperature control. It contains 22 close-ended questions and each question has three optional answers (“Yes”, “No” and “I do not know”). The response was analyzed as categorical variables (right or wrong answer). A score of one was given to right answer and zero to the wrong and I do not know answer. A scale ranging between 0 and 22 which representing the total number of questions on food safety knowledge. Meat handlers that got overall score ≤ 14 points were considered to have “unsatisfactory” and those scored ≥ 15 points (≥ 68 % accuracy) “satisfactory” knowledge of food safety.
The third part of the questionnaire was about food safety attitude of meat handlers. It comprises 20 questions about hand washing, cross contamination, food handling, storage etc. In this section, the respondents’ answers were “agree”, “disagree”, and “don’t know”. The response was analyzed as categorical variables (right or wrong answer). A score of one was given to right answer and zero to the wrong and I do not know answer. Each correct answer was given one point whereas incorrect answer including the answer I do not know was awarded zero point. For evaluation, food-handlers that answered 14 or more questions correctly were measured to have “good” attitude whereas respondents answer 13 or less questions correctly were measured to have “poor” attitude.
The last section dealt with food hygiene practices. The question comprises the issues of personal hygiene, hand washing practices, practices against food borne diseases and cross contamination. This section had 20 questions with two possible responses: “yes”, and “no”. Each correct practice reported scored one (1) point. For evaluation, a score ≥ 70% that means food-handlers practiced 14 or more out of 20 hygienic practices which are listed in the questions was considered as having “good” food hygienic practice [20 (link)].
