Bridging the Food Safety Knowledge–Practice Gap: A Comparative Assessment of Health and Non-Health University Students

Vollständiger Abstract

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Background: Food safety is a serious public health issue all over the world and unsafe food handling practices are a major cause of food borne illness and related health and economic costs. University students are especially at risk for food safety issues when they are now expected to make more decisions about food preparation and consumption. Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the food safety knowledge and practices of health and nonhealth university students and to investigate the correlation between the food safety knowledge and practices of university students. Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional comparative study of undergraduate students of Umm AlQura University, Saudi Arabia. The data were obtained through a structured self-administered questionnaire from a total of 300 students, 150 from health science programs and 150 students from non-health science programs. Using SPSS, several inferential statistical techniques were applied to test the study hypotheses. Findings: The participants demonstrated satisfactory food safety knowledge (M = 11.84, SD = 2.21) and food safety practices (M = 3.91, SD = 0.67). Health science students exhibited significantly higher food safety knowledge (M = 13.21 vs. 10.47; t = 13.18, p < 0.001) and better food safety practices (M = 4.24 vs. 3.58; t = 9.72, p < 0.001) than non-health science students. Food safety knowledge was positively associated with food safety practices (r = 0.643, p < 0.001), while regression analysis identified food safety knowledge as the strongest predictor of safe food handling behaviors (β = 0.501, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The study highlighted that academic discipline had an effect on food safety knowledge and practices, with food safety knowledge gained in educational programs related to health being associated with safer food handling practices.