Educational background characteristic of food handlers and their knowledge, attitude and practice toward food safety at selected keropok lekor shop in Kota Bharu, Kelantan: article

Contamination of keropok lekor can occur during all stages of processing, and in some cases, it can cause illness. Thus, it creates a food safety concern for the consumer. A cross sectional study was conducted in randomly selected medium size keropok lekor shops around Kota Bharu, Kelantan as to determine the educational background characteristic of food handlers and their knowledge, attitude and practice toward food safety. A total of 55 respondent from an approximately 21 shops participated in the study. An established questionnaire was adopted and it comprised of four sections: (1) demographics information, (2) food safety knowledge, (3) attitude toward food safety, (4) food safety practices. A linear regression correlation test was used as to see the strength and direction of correlation between the mean of education level and food safety knowledge, mean of education level and food safety attitude, and also between mean of education level and food safety practices. The result indicates that there is no significant positive relationship between education level and food safety knowledge (β = .003, p> 0.05). R2 of .000 shows that any changes of food handlers’ knowledge are not influenced by education level. Besides that, the result also shows a significant positive relationship between education level and attitude (β = .416, p < 0.05). Its R2 of .173 indicate that any changes in food safety attitude is explained by education level by 17%. The last variable is the food safety practices, the result shows that there is a significant negative relationship between education level and food safety practices (β = -. 279, p < 0.05). R2 of .078 shows that any changes of food safety practices are explained by education level by 7.8%. Thus, it can be said that educational background did not play a significant role in food safety