Knowledge and Hygiene Practice for Food Contaminated with Molds Among People in Owerri Municipal, Imo State
By Agbugba C. O., Okorie O. M., Amadi, A. N., Ekeleme, U. G, Dozie U W, Iwuala C. C
Molds are commonly found everywhere in nature and virtually everywhere, both indoors and outdoors including food and the environment. The study assessed the knowledge and hygiene practices of food contaminated with molds among the populace of Owerri. The study adopted Cross-sectional study design and primary data was mainly used and collected through questionnaire developed by Environmental Health Organization Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) to collect information on the status of knowledge, hygiene practices and management of molds in the environment. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The finding revealed that most respondents are not aware of the presence of Molds in their environments (55.6%) neither do they have adequate information about molds in food and environment (41.3%). Over half of the participants were not sure they could identify feed/food material suspected to be contaminated by molds. The result revealed poor hygiene practices among the respondents towards molds in food and environment. It wass recommended that government agencies, stakeholders and public health authorities are to provide health education programmes that will sensitize concerned groups on better development.