ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Hamed M. Alzoubi1, Munir A. Abu-Helalah2, Ahmad Y. Al-Zu’bi3, Oday Z. Al-Ma’aitah4, Tariq A. Dalbah4, Hussam A. Alshraideh5 and Amin A. Aqel6
1Assistant Professor of Microbiology, Microbiology and Immunology Department,
Faculty of Medicine, Mu’tah University, Karak, Jordan.
2Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Department of
Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Mu’tah University, Karak, Jordan.
3Sixth-year medical student, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science
and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
4General Physicians, Ministry of Health, Jordan.
5Assistant Professor of Operational Research and Statistics, Department of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan.
6Associate Professor of Microbiology, Microbiology and Immunology Department,
Faculty of Medicine, Mu’tah University, Karak, Jordan.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2015;9(Spl. Edn. 1):211-220
© The Author(s). 2015
Received: 22/03/2015 | Accepted: 08/05/2015 | Published: 31/05/2015
Abstract

Food-borne illnesses represent a major public health problem. Published research on food safety among university students shows that this group has limited knowledge in this field. The study assessed eating behavior and Food safety knowledge and practice among university students in Jordan. This cross-sectional study was based on a questionnaire that was completed by 1, 161 students from three major universities in Jordan. The mean number of times per week in which students ate or bought food from restaurants was 3.69 ± 3.0 SD. The most common factors that students considered when easting in a restaurant were hygiene (82.7%), followed by the price (9.0%), and closeness to living place (7.7%).  Only 51.5% of participants reported that the restaurant workers always/often wear gloves when preparing their meals. Overall, 53.7% (n = 637) of students reported having at least one symptom after eating food in a restaurant, however only 4.1% of our sample reported these incidences to the authorities. Significant differences in food safety knowledge and practices exist between students. There is a need to increase university students’ knowledge on food safety and to improve their awareness of the importance of reporting food poisoning symptoms.

Keywords

Food poisoning, University, students, Jordan

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© The Author(s) 2015. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.