Food safety practices of individuals before and after the emergence of COVID-19: A pre- and post-comparative analysis.

BACKGROUND

Recent literature highlights both beneficial and adverse effects of COVID-19 on individual food safety practices; however, the actual impact remains unverified, especially in low-resource countries. This study primarily aimed to investigate how COVID-19 has directly and indirectly influenced food safety practices among individuals in Ethiopia.

METHOD

A retrospective survey was used to collect information related to the food safety practices of individuals, both before and after COVID-19. The survey was conducted in one metropolitan city, Addis Ababa, and three regional cities -Dessie, Kombolcha, and Debre Birhan - situated in the Amhara regional state of Ethiopia, between 16 April to 30 June 2023. The food buyers in the selected cities were randomly selected based on their place in queue in randomly selected food shops. As this study aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 on individuals' food safety practices in both metropolitan and regional contexts, an equal number of participants were allocated and surveyed from both location types. IBM SPSS Version 28 was used for both data entry and statistical analyses. Following data entry, data cleaning and management were performed using SPSS Syntax commands to prepare the dataset for descriptive and ordinal logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

Of the 396 sampled individuals, 51.5% were female and the remaining 48.5% were male. Participants' educational level had a statistically significant impact on overall food safety practices both before (p = 0.001, AOR = 0.017) and after (p = 0.001, AOR = 0.002) the emergence of COVID-19. Similarly, the type of work for income generation influenced food safety practices both pre- (p = 0.15, AOR = 0.21) and post- (p = 0.21, AOR = 0.324) COVID-19. Participants' location was significantly associated with their food safety practices only before the emergence of COVID-19 (p = 0.006, AOR = 4.906). Additionally, dummy variables related to living arrangements/family size showed a statistically significant association, with p-values ranging from 0.001 to 0.002 and AOR between 27.578 and 168.937. During both pre- and post-COVID-19 periods, all the dummy variables of cleaning-related predictive variables had significant association with food safety practices - before the pandemic, p-values ranged from 0.001 to 0.023, with AOR between 0.00 and 0.059 and after the pandemic, p-values ranged from 0.001 to 0.017, with AOR between 0.00 and 15.596. Among cooking-related practices, cooking raw food before consumption was significantly associated with food safety practices, with p = 0.004 and AOR = 0.002 before the pandemic, and p = 0.031 and AOR = 0.08 after the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that the emergence of COVID-19 had a positive impact on individuals' food safety practices, as they adhered more closely to food safety standards during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. Policymakers, food safety regulators, governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as academic and research institutions, are encouraged to develop an integrated food safety sustainability policy. This policy should aim to maintain the advancements in food safety practices that resulted from the implementation of COVID-19 prevention and control measures.