Time for Action: Assessment of Knowledge on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points of Food Handlers in Standard Hotels in Lagos State, Nigeria

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are two million reported cases of food poisoning in Nigeria with estimated deaths of 200,000 people from food poisoning and 20,000 deaths from exposure to food pesticides annually - children inclusive. These hotels make provision of letting room, food and refreshment services in restaurant, bars and banqueting rooms, conference/mailing rooms and leisure facilities it was expressed that, threat identified with the production of food items can be minimized to a permissible limit or eliminated through the utilization of HACCP procedure. This study assessed the knowledge of HACCP of food handlers in standard hotels in Lagos State. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey research design and was conducted in Lagos. All the hotels classified by the Nigeria Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC, 2001) as either three, four or five star-rated were targeted. A purposive and stratified sampling technique was used to select the study units who constituted the respondents for the study with a total of 31 hotels involved in the study. A questionnaire was used to get information on knowledge on HACCP and its implementation by 31 food handlers. Data were presented in tables. Findings from this study has revealed that under 20% of the respondents in the various hotels use HACCP has the quality control strategy, less than 50% understand the concept of HACCP. Results also revealed that there is an insignificant relationship between years of service in the food establishment and the knowledge on HACCP at P value (0.05). More results revealed that there is no significant relation between formal training and knowledge on food safety. Results also revealed that there is no significant relationship between knowledge of HACCP by food handlers and their implementation in food preparation with P-value at (0.05). This insignificant relationship between formal training and knowledge on food safety could mean that there may be other factors preventing food handlers from implementing food safety practice, this may include time, cost of carrying out the practices or even personal attitude of the food handlers during food handling. Food handlers should be taught food safety practices practically rather than theoretically.