Effect of food hygiene training on food handlers’ knowledge in Sokoto Metropolis: a quasi-experimental study

INTRODUCTION: training intervention for food handlers is necessary to increase their knowledge and awareness about food hygiene. Research in this area has been given low attention in Nigeria, especially in the Northern part of the country. Therefore, we assessed the effect of food hygiene training on the knowledge of food hygiene among food handlers in Sokoto metropolis. METHODS: we conducted a quasi-experimental study between January and July 2019. We used a multistage sampling technique to select 360 food handlers randomized into intervention and control groups. We conducted a training intervention after the baseline data collection. Post-intervention data collection was conducted six months after the intervention. We estimated the proportion of respondents with good knowledge at baseline and post-intervention. We assessed the difference in pre-and post-intervention proportions using McNemars Marginal Homogeneity test at 5% level of significance. RESULTS: in the intervention and control groups, 19 (10.6%) and 18 (10.0%) had primary education respectively, p = 0.231. At baseline, 23 (12.8%) and 22 (12.2%) in intervention and control groups respectively had good knowledge, p= 0.515. At post-intervention, the proportion of those with good knowledge in the intervention group increased to 56.7%, p < 0.001; while in the control group, there was no significant difference in the proportion of those with good knowledge, p = 0.248. CONCLUSION: the training intervention has significantly improved the knowledge of the food handlers. We recommend that the National Food and Drug Agency, in collaboration with restaurant owners, ensure regular on-the-job training of food handlers.