Assessing Knowledge, Attitude, Prevention on Practice and Regulatory Body Practices of Food Adulteration on Selected Food Items among Bahir Dar City Dwellers
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Date
2021-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Background: Food adulteration is an addition of another substance to a food item to increase the quantity which may result in the loss of actual quality of the food item. This practice critically diminishes the nutritional value of food; contributes to the society with many diseases ranging from mild to life-threatening and it has an impact on national economic development. To tackle such public health problems the knowledge, attitude, and prevention practice of the consumer and also regulatory practices of the health regulatory body are playing a great role. However, information on knowledge, attitude, prevention practice and regulatory body practices on food adulteration was not well studied and documented in the study area.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, prevention practice and regulatory body practices of food adulteration on selected food items among Bahir Dar city dwellers.
Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2020- November 2021. Systematic random sampling technique was used to select 422 household leader study participants. Face to face Interview administered questionnaires were used to collect the data. All questionnaires were checked for completeness, cleaned manually, coded, and entered into Epi info version 7.2.1.0 software and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Descriptive parameters, such as mean, standard deviation, median and interquartile range for continuous data, frequencies and percentages for categorical data and graphs were used for data presentation.
Result: The mean age and standard deviation of the participants were 43.61 (± 13.82) years. A total of 414 participants were participated in this study making a 98.1% response rate. Of the participants 239 (57.7%) were female and the remaining were male participants. From 414 participants, 259 (62.6%), 295 (71.3%), and 208 (50.2%) had good knowledge, favorable attitude, and good prevention practice towards food adulteration respectively. The most identified roles of regional regulatory bodies in this study were conducting inspection and surveillance, performing monitoring and evaluation through laboratory testing and or analysis, undertaking regulatory intelligence and emergency responses, and staff improvement and training programs for sustainable performance.Conclusion/recommendation: the study revealed that residents have good knowledge and attitude, but less preventive practice in regulating food adulteration. Food adulteration is becoming a public problem in Bahir Dar. It affects the consumers' right to eat safe, high-quality foods. As a result, all responsible persons, organizations, and governments, should do their part to defend the act of food adulteration and to disclose the recognized activities. Furthermore, consumers should take attention to the place where they buy any food items as food adulteration take place at retailing, distribution, and producing stages.
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Food Adulteration, Knowledge, Attitude, Prevention Practice, & Regulatory Body practices