Current safety status during poultry processing in the traditional market of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 80 chicken sellers of Dhaka North City Corporation's randomly chosen traditional markets in order to examine the actual poultry selling and processing techniques through evaluating the socioeconomic characters and food safety knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) of sellers. According to the findings, a substantial part of sellers (70%) were between the ages of 35 and 45, primary school dropouts (40%), had between 5 and 10 years of experience (75%), and none had any formal training in food safety or health certification. The majority of the birds (77.5%) were delivered by the supplier in the morning and slaughtered without any ante-mortem screening or feed withdrawal time. The interquartile range (IQR) of the median KAP scores were 10 (2–18), 18 (9–25), and 6 (3–10) respectively. With a mean total score of 10.98 ± 4.30, roughly 49.9% of the sellers demonstrated a sufficient degree of food safety knowledge. With a mean total score of 18.19 ± 3.98 approximately 54.4% of the meat handlers exhibited a good attitude toward safety precautions. With a mean overall score of 5.91 ± 1.74 (≤6), only 45.48% of chicken vendors followed sound food safety practices. The results also showed a statistically significant negative correlation between knowledge and practice (P<0.01), which depicts that even though the majority of poultry sellers have a basic understanding of meat processing safety practices, they do not put this knowledge into practice. As a result, meat handlers should receive ongoing training in food safety as well as hands-on experience, which can enhance solid safety measures through an increased understanding and a positive mindset.