Purpose

The purpose of this study was to evaluate food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in the Republic of Serbia. It was also to determine whether the university curriculum influences the food safety outcome among participating students.

Design/methodology/approach

A structured, self-administrative questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in the Republic of Serbia. In total, 240 students were involved in this study. For each participating student, the food handling practice score (FHPS) and food safety knowledge score (FSKS) was calculated by dividing the sum of correct answers by the total number of correct responses. Additionally, knowledge gaps among students of food/health related and non-food/health related faculties were identified.

Findings

The average FHPS for all students was 46%, while the average FSKS was 56%. Both FHPS and FSKS scores were significantly associated with the education, and students of food/health related faculties (Food Technology, Veterinary Medicine and Medicine) obtained better scores compared to students of non-food/health related faculties (Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Faculty of Philology). Only 12.5% of all students and only 3.3% of non-food/health related students knew that food contaminated with food poisoning bacteria cannot be recognized by visual, olfactory or taste checks. The results indicated that 95% of students apply good practice of hand hygiene before preparing food, while only 52.5% of all students declared that they wash their hands for at least 20 s.

Originality/value

This is the first research aimed to investigate the food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in this part of Europe. Identifying knowledge gaps can help identifying at-risk populations and knowledge-based interventions. Also, novelty of this research was the connection between students' knowledge and curriculum of different food/health related faculties.

中文翻译：

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大学课程是否会影响学生的食品安全知识水平？

目的

这项研究的目的是评估塞尔维亚共和国大学生的食品处理实践和食品安全知识。还要确定大学的课程是否影响参与者的食品安全结果。

设计/方法/方法

设计了结构化的自我管理调查表，并将其用于评估塞尔维亚共和国大学生的食品处理实践和食品安全知识水平。总共有240名学生参与了这项研究。对于每个参加活动的学生，通过将正确答案的总和除以正确答案的总数，来计算食品操作实践分数（FHPS）和食品安全知识分数（FSKS）。此外，还发现了与食品/健康相关和非食品/健康相关学院的学生之间的知识差距。

发现

所有学生的平均FHPS为46％，而FSKS的平均为56％。FHPS和FSKS分数均与教育程度显着相关，与非食品/健康相关学院（农业，经济和农业学院）的学生相比，食品/健康相关学院（食品技术，兽医和医学）的学生得分更高。语言学院）。在所有学生中，只有12.5％的学生与与食品/健康无关的学生中只有3.3％的学生知道，通过视觉，嗅觉或味觉检查无法识别被食物中毒细菌污染的食物。结果表明，有95％的学生在准备食物之前采取了良好的手部卫生习惯，而只有52.5％的学生宣称自己洗手至少20 s。

创意/价值

这是第一项旨在调查欧洲部分地区大学生食品处理实践和食品安全知识的研究。识别知识差距可以帮助识别高风险人群和基于知识的干预措施。同样，这项研究的新颖之处在于学生的知识与不同食品/健康相关学院课程之间的联系。