Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among restaurant's staff in Jordan: a cross-sectional study
ISSN: 0007-070X
Article publication date: 10 December 2020
Issue publication date: 30 September 2021
Abstract
Purpose
People with food allergies rely to a great extent on restaurant staff to have a safe meal. The purpose of this paper is to acquire novel data to evaluate knowledge, attitudes and practices of food allergy among the restaurant's staff and factors that could be associated with these domains.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study involving 306 restaurant staff in Amman City, Jordan was conducted using a validated self-reported questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify factors independently associated with knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP).
Findings
The results showed that most restaurant staff had moderate to excellent knowledge, positive attitudes, low to moderate risk practices regarding food allergy. Knowledge level was significantly associated with the staff's age, position, education level and restaurant class. Further, attitude level was significantly associated with staff age, experience, gender, education level, restaurant class and whether the restaurant held food safety certificates. Similarly, staff behavioral practices were significantly associated with staff position, restaurant class and the presence of valid food safety certificates.
Practical implications
This study suggests that more training for the staff in restaurants would be associated with a lower risk of providing unsafe meals.
Originality/value
This study demonstrated the need for the pre-employment theoretical and practical tests for restaurants’ staff to determine their knowledge level and provide them mandatory developing training programs to support and facilitate food allergy risk management and to develop food allergy policies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support received from Scientific Research Board of Petra University, Amman, JordanFinancial support: The Funding was provided by the Dean of Scientific Research and Graduate Studies, University of Petra, Amman, Jordan.Author contributions: Nour Amin Elsahoryi designed the study, collected, analyzed, interpreted data and wrote the manuscript. Refat Alkurd contributed in designing the study, data collecting and writing the manuscript. Leena Ahmad contributed in writing the manuscript. Fwzieh Hammad contributed in designing the study and data analysis. Amin N. Olimat and Richard Holley revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts of interest.
Citation
Elsahoryi, N.A., Alkurd, R., Ahmad, L., Olaimat, A.N., Hammad, F. and Holley, R. (2021), "Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) among restaurant's staff in Jordan: a cross-sectional study", British Food Journal, Vol. 123 No. 9, pp. 3056-3069. https://doi.org/10.1108/BFJ-06-2020-0522
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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