Evaluation of some hotel kitchen staff on their knowledge on food safety and kitchen hygiene in the Kumasi Metropolis

The hotel industry in Ghana forms one of the sectors of the hospitality industry that offer catering services for profit. People within the high socioeconomic group as well as foreigners patronize prepared food from the hotels with the assumption that foods sold from these hotels are prepared under good hygienic conditions and that the food handlers will practice food safety. In this study, 39 hotel kitchen staffs were evaluated on food safety through semi-structured questionnaire on demographics, knowledge and practices on food safety/hygiene as well as kitchen sanitation. Results indicated that females comprising 56.4%, dominated the hotel food preparation establishment. All the respondents were educated. 74.4 % kitchen staff members were aware of the causes of food poisoning while 35 (89.7 %) were aware that microorganisms can be found in refrigerated foods. All subjects responded positively to the washing of hands during food preparation with over 87.2% indicating that the hands should be washed after touching something different from what is being cooked. In the case of items used to wipe hands, 71% (28) used kitchen napkin. Respondents who were medically examined were 82.7% (34) with only 7.7 % (3) who were employed without medical checkup. In the area of sanitation, 94.9% (37) respondents used fly-proof doors in their kitchens while 66.7% respondents know that cooking environment should be cleaned in the morning, afternoon and evening. Thirty eight (97.4%) respondents disinfected their work surfaces when required. Thus, the research revealed that most hotel kitchen staff from the ten hotels studied, had adequate knowledge of food safety and kitchen hygiene