Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of food handlers: A cross-sectional study in school kitchens in Espírito Santo, Brazil

BACKGROUND: The adoption and evaluation of good practices in food handling in food service are essential to minimizing foodborne diseases. The present study aimed to evaluate food safety knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food handlers in schools in Vitória, Brazil. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the school food services of the municipal network of Vitória-ES. The sample of food handlers was obtained by convenience and comprised food handlers involved with preparation and other kitchen-related activities. The instrument consisted of a structured questionnaire with 36 six questions that included sociodemographic characteristics, knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related to good practices and food safety. The questionnaire was answered by 172 food handlers. Pearson correlation test, T-test, Tukey’s test and multiple linear regression analysis were conducted. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS v.20 software. RESULTS: Most of the participants were female (96.5%, n = 166), were 40 to 49 years old (44.8%, n = 78), attended high school (57.9%, n = 99), had up to 5 years of experience in the role (39.5%, n = 68). Some of them had participated at least 4 times in training (74.4%, n = 128) of which the most recent session had occurred within 3 months (52.0%, n = 44). The lowest score was obtained for knowledge (7.1 ± 1.22). All the models presented significant results for the F-test. This result show good model fit and results ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 on the Durbin Watson test of residual autocorrelation. The linear regression analysis allowed us to identify that the knowledge score increased with experience, but it was significant only for those who had spent up to 10 years in the role. The knowledge score was associated with experience and training time. Attitudes were significantly related to the schooling and training time. The increase in the classification of practices is shown only through a classification of attitudes. CONCLUSIONS: Although the food handlers’ knowledge level in general was considered as sufficient, it was inferior to their scores for attitudes and practices regarding certain food safety concepts. Food safety training is ongoing in these units and covers the main aspects that favour the transformation of knowledge into appropriate attitudes and practices. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-021-10282-1.