Food safety expertise among professional food handlers and consumers related to foodborne viruses case Slovenia
The objective of this quantitative survey was to determine the knowledge of Slovenian consumers and food handlers about viral food safety. For this reason, interviews were conducted using structured questionnaires and included 417 consumers and 61 food handlers. Foodborne viruses were not recognisable as distinctive foodborne hazards by food handlers, which demonstrates the lack of viral food safety knowledge using the chi square test. The analysis pointed out that higher educated food handlers showed a lack of food safety expertise. However, at the same time, higher educated food handlers possessed more knowledge compared to less educated handlers. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed on data restricted to consumer study group. The results pointed out that the lack of awareness and knowledge strongly prevails over the viral food safety knowledge and awareness. The analysis showed that consumers' knowledge and awareness varied by consumers' education level, age and gender. On the basis of these results, we can conclude that the profile of comprehension and consequences is not the same for food handlers and for consumers. The obtained results revealed that food safety educational initiatives should be developed to better inform consumers about safe food handling practices and habits to protect their health form foodborne disease, including viral infections.