Assessment of food handlers’ knowledge, attitude and practices on food hygiene in Serdang, Selangor - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 446

1.1 Food safety in the foodservice industry
One of the most important aspects in foodservice
operations but usually receives the smallest amount
of visibility and attention is food safety (Manask,
2002). Food service is almost in the last part of food
preparation, it guides the final linkage of food safety
for public concern. Every food should be assured
that it is safe to be consumed and especially from
farm to fork which means the raw materials that we
get must be from good sources and free from any
contaminations. Foodborne illness episodes have
been commonly associated with foodservice and
the greatest number of food poisoning outbreak
also arises from this segment of industry (Cavalli &
Salay, 2004; Clayton & Griffith, 2004).
Every foodservice operation has the potential to
cause foodborne illness through errors in purchas-
ing, receiving, storing, preparing and serving food
(National Restaurant Association, 1992). A wide
range of common contributing factors to the food-
borne illness in foodservice has been documented
(Coleman & Griffith, 1998; Ryan et al., 1996;
Weingold et al., 1994). Worldwide epidemiological
research identified inadequate heat treatment, inap-
propriate storage of foods, infected food handlers
and cross-contamination as the major contribut-
ing factors (Griffith, 2000). Malpractices of food
hygiene are consistently suggested as the underlying
cause of foodborne illness in foodservice industry.
A study on the CDC report of foodborne out-
breaks between 1988 and 1992 found improper
holding temperature of food and poor personal
hygiene of employees reported in 59% and 36% of
outbreaks, respectively (Bean, Goulding, Daniels &
Angulo, 1997). In a more recent study, employees'
poor safe food handling practices associated with
bare-hand contact and handling of food by infected
person were identified as contributing factors in
foodservice operations implicated with foodborne
illness outbreaks (Hedberg et al., 2006).

and responsibilities in preventing foodborne illness
outbreaks (Howellset et al., 2008).

1.3 Factors affecting food hygiene practices
Numerous studies have investigated factors that
influence food handlers' safe food handling prac-
tices with the overarching goal to enhance current
interventions strategies and help address current
challenges in managing food safety. Factors affect-
ing food handlers' practices are multidimensional
and include their food safety knowledge. A number
of studies have investigated the role of knowledge
and attitudes on food handlers' safe food handling
practices in the foodservice industry (Abdul-Mu-
talib et al., 2012; Bas, Ersun & Kivanc, 2006; Ko,
2012; Martin, Hogg & Otero, 2012). Knowledge
about and attitudes toward food safety are impor-
tant affecting food handlers' practices. Attitudes an
important factor besides knowledge and enforce-
ment, ensure a downward trend of food borne ill-
nesses (Howes et al., 1996). Several researchers have
applied behavioral theories to understand underly-
ing factors influencing food safety practices (Ball,
Wilcock & Aung, 2010a; Brannon, York, Roberts,
Shanklin & Howells, 2009).

2 METHODOLOGY

2.1 Population and study sample
The study population for this research consisted
of food handlers, who were employees working in
restaurants or food premises in Serdang, Selangor.
Sample of the study was selected from the regis-
tered or listed restaurants given by the Department
of Health in Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya
(MPSJ). The sample size was 200 food handlers
in Serdang area and group administered question-
naires method was employed to recruit respond-
ents for data collection. Study sample was located
in 17 medium-size restaurants including several
fast food restaurants in Serdang area. Convenience
sampling technique was used for selecting respond-
ents because of limited cooperation obtained from
the study population.

1.2 Personal hygiene for food handlers
Food handler is anyone who is employed in the pro-
duction, preparation, processing, packaging, stor-
age, transport, distribution and sale of food. The
area of personal hygiene that of utmost importance
includes hands and skin, cuts, boils, septic spots,
hair, ear, nose and mouth, smoking, wearing jew-
elry, perfume, protective clothing, general health-
care and reporting of illness and most importantly
is the hygiene education itself. Food handlers can
spread food borne illnesses as their hands and
other body parts may harbor microorganisms and
their actions as well, may compromise the chain
of safety 'from farm to fork”(Akonor & Akonor,
2013). Therefore, food handlers have critical roles

2.2 Research instrument
A self-administered survey questionnaire was
used for data collection. The research instrument
was constructed by adapting items from the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) outlines, Malay-
sia Food Hygiene Regulations (2009) and also the
Malaysian Ministry of Health Guidelines in Food
Hygiene (Ministry of Health, 2009). There were
41 questions in the questionnaire divided into 4