Publications

There is shortage of data on food safety knowledge and practices among Lebanese food handlers due to the lack of a reliable tool. The aim of the current study is to determine the reliability as well as the validity of an adopted Arabic version of the Osaili et al (2013) food safety questionnaire. Translation and back translation and testing equivalence were done using standard accepted procedures. A total of 110 undergraduate Nutrition and Dietetics students completed the questionnaire consisting of five subscales that covers major food safety concepts including personal hygiene, safe storage, cross contamination prevention, knowledge of health problems affecting food safety and symptoms of foodborne diseases. Construct validity was tested using knowledgeable group analysis; internal consistency was determined using Cronbach’s α and item-to-total correlation. Temporal stability was evaluated by test–retest reliability in a subgroup of 67 students. The results showed non-significant difference between scores of English and Arabic versions revealing equivalence. For the psychometric analysis, the significant statistical difference for most of food safety knowledge scores between lower and higher years of study indicates satisfactory construct validity. The test-retest reliability of the Arabic questionnaire showed a good temporal stability (ICC>0.8), while the Cronbach’s α for the total scales ranged between 0.611 and 0.736 revealing an acceptable and satisfactory level of internal consistency for the items retained in the questionnaire. The translated Arabic version of the food safety questionnaire can be considered as a consistent and reliable tool, to be used as food safety knowledge assessment among food handlers.