Knowledge About Food Safety and Handling Practices – Lessons from the Serbian Public Universities

INTRODUCTION: Education about food safety is important for public health, and the best place to provide it is a university environment. The aim of the research was to assess food safety knowledge and self-reported food handling practices among students in Serbia. METHODS: The research was performed from October to December 2020, using an electronic survey among students at the University of Belgrade, University of Niš, and University of Novi Sad. RESULTS: The average students’ age was 21 (SD=1.7), and genderwise the proportion was 54% women and 46% men. The average score for self-reported food handling practices was 45.7% (SD=15.7), and for food safety knowledge 57.9% (SD=15.7). The results showed that students whose field of study is health-related (e.g. nutrition, chemistry, biology, medicine and pharmacy) had the highest score for self-reported food handling practices (48.8%) and for food safety knowledge (57.7%). As for age, the senior students showed the highest score for food safety (57.2%), followed by third-year students (53.8%), second-year (51.9%), and first-year students (49.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The first-year students and those whose field of the study was not health-related showed the lowest score in the answers to the questions about food handling practices and food safety knowledge. However, the longer students study, the more knowledge they have, which is not the case for those whose studies are non-health-related.