Assessment of Food Safety and Food Handling Practice Knowledge among College of Basic Education Students, Kuwait

Table 3

Score distribution for food handling practices questions.

Food handling practice questions	Responses	n	%
The best way to wash vegetables and fresh fruits is using	Soup	25	4.3
	Hot water	250	42.7
	Water and salt	53	9.1
	Water and vinegar	128	21.9
	Cool running water	129	22.1
The best way to reuse a meat/chicken/fish cutting board to cut other foods is	Use the board as it is	22	3.8
	Wipe the board off with a paper towel	48	8.2
	Use the other side of the board	53	9.1
	Wash the board with soap and hot water	228	39.0
	Use a different cutting board	234	40.0
The best way to reuse a meat/chicken/fish knife is	Reuse the knife as it is	15	2.6
	Rinse the knife with cold water	98	16.8
	Wash the knife with soap and water	449	76.8
	Wipe the knife with a cloth	23	3.9
The best way to wash dishes to avoid food poisoning is	Use an automatic dishwasher	120	20.5
	Soak them then wash in the same water	42	7.6
	Hand wash them and let them air dry	263	45.0
	Hand wash them and then dry them with a towel	160	27.4
What is the best way you wash your hands?	Soap and water	527	90.1
	Water only	47	8.0
	Hand sanitizer	4	0.7
	I do not wash my hands	7	1.2
What is the best way you dry your hands?	Paper towel	535	91.5
	Hand air dryer	4	0.7
	Dry on their own	30	5.1
	Using my clothes	16	2.7
Do you take off jewellery when preparing food?	Yes	298	50.9
	No	107	18.3
	Not applicable	180	30.8
Do you prepare food if you have a sore on the back of your hand?	Yes, if you are putting on a bandage	196	33.5
	Yes, if you wear a glove	71	12.1
	Yes, if you bandage the sore and wear a glove	119	20.3
	No, before the sore heals, you should not make food	199	34.0
You should wash your hands during cooking if you touch	Your face	191	32.6
	Clean pots and counter	210	35.9
	Utensils used in cooking food	145	24.8
	None of the above	39	6.7
How many times per week is your kitchen sink drain sanitized?	Daily	377	64.4
	Weekly	71	12.1
	Never	31	5.3
	Only when washing food in the sink	106	18.1
The best place to store raw meat in your fridge is	Top shelf	385	65.8
	Medium shelf	92	15.7
	Lowest shelf	108	18.5
How do you make sure that a burger is cooked properly at home?	By its color	302	51.6
	By its texture and firmness	101	17.3
	By its core temperature	31	5.3
	By measuring the cooking time	67	11.5
	I do not know	84	14.4
The most ideal way to fry eggs is	Until the egg white is solid and egg yellow is semisolid	160	27.4
	Until the egg white and yellow are semisolid	79	13.5
	Until the egg white and yellow are solid	346	59.1
The most ideal way to defrost frozen meat is	Use a microwave	27	4.6
	Put it under running water for 1 hour	416	71.1
	Leave it outside the freezer for 1 hour	107	18.3
	Leave it in the fridge for a few hours	35	6.0
The most ideal place to store a hot meal is in	The fridge	130	22.2
	A cool oven	74	12.6
	A warm oven	287	49.1
The best time to take refrigerated items during grocery shopping is	On the counter	94	16.1
	At the beginning	46	7.9
	In the middle	48	8.2
	At the end	318	54.4
	Any time	173	29.6

n: number of respondents. In this table, the best food handling practice is in bold.