Food Allergy Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices: A Pilot Study of the General Public and Food Handlers

Objective: We have assessed the factors that might improve the free food allergen at the restaurants. In addition, we have compared food handlers knowledge with the general public knowledge about food allergens.

Design: Cross-sectional, via questionnaires.

Participants: A total of 182 participants (80 food handlers and 102 of general public).

Main Outcome Measures: Dependent variables: Food allergy knowledge, attitudes and practices.

Analysis: The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and independent t-test. Questionnaires were hand coded and data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0.

Results: The survey showed that food handlers and general public had some knowledge on the issue, a major proportion of both group do not believe the meals produced in restaurants are safe in terms of food allergies.

Conclusions and Implications: Allergic people must stay on the alert, questioning the place where they are going to have their meals in terms of the ingredients used, verifying whether the food is really free of allergens. This study can be used by restaurants to develop food allergy policies.