Food allergies knowledge, attitude and practices of kitchen workers in the five star hotels in Turkey

Along with the crucial increase in the cases of lethal allergic reactions, the problem of food allergy attracts attention of public health authorities especially about the practice among food processors. The heightened knowledge, attitude and practice levels of food processors on food allergy have significant influence on the prevention of potential reactions. The purpose of this study is to identify the knowledge, attitude and practices of kitchen employees working at five-star hotels. The sample of this study consists of 450 kitchen employees at five-star hotels in the provinces of Antalya, Istanbul and Ankara. The data collected within the scope of the research is analyzed and interpreted by using Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis H test, by benefiting from descriptive statistics in the direction of particular purposes. The frequency and percentage distributions are taken, and the descriptive statistics are presented through charts. Correlation analysis is used to test the relations between workers' knowledge, attitude and practice on food allergy. The average knowledge rate of participants is 70%, the attitude rate is 81% and the practice rate is 85%. Considering the results, the kitchen employees' knowledge on food allergy is evaluated as "average," the attitude level as "positive" and their level of practice as "low-risk practice." It is analyzed whether the kitchen workers' rates of knowledge, attitude and practices on food allergy differ according to the demographic variables. The attitude and practices rates of the workers with an education on food allergy is a significant level higher than the ones without education (p<0.05). It is determined that, as the total working hours at the sector increase, so do the practice rates at a significant level (p<0.05). It is also determined that the attitude and practices rates of the workers, working as head cook and assistant of head cook are a significant level higher than the rates of the ones working as commies and steward (p<0.05). It is identified that the majority of the participants correctly know the most common eight allergic foods and a great majority of them (93.3%) choose egg as allergic. Considering the relation between knowledge, attitude and practice; it is identified that there is a significant and positive correlation between knowledge and attitude (r=0.242; p<0.05), attitude and practice (r=0.355; p<0.05), and knowledge and practice (r=0.199; p<0.05).