An Assessment of The Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Selected Turo-Turo Restaurants Near Saint Mary’s University

Turo-Turo in the Filipino language means, “point-point,†that insinuates to a local and cafeteria-style service of food handlers wherein a customer picks a combo of entrees from a range of prepared dishes, it also offers fast service, in which brands them popular with customers that have limited time to eat, wherein you just need to choose and pay. Moreover, food safety refers to the practices that are done in the preparation, handling, and storing of food are intended to prevent foodborne illness, thus, this study sought to obtain current information on the food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers of the turo-turo restaurants near Saint Mary’s University. This study used the descriptive–quantitative type of research in assessing the food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers. The researchers selected six (6) turo-turo restaurants. In relation to this, a minimum of three (3) hands-on staff from each restaurant were approached to participate in the study. Moreover, an adapted questionnaire-checklist was used to gather the needed data for the research study. The findings stated that the majority of the food handlers are knowledgeable on proper food safety, however, there are few food handlers who are not knowledgeable with regards to some of the statements under Cross-contamination and Proper storage of food. On the other hand, most of the food handlers practice the proper food safety practices, however, few of the respondents do not observe the food safety practices with regards to some statements in the category of Sanitizing Equipment and utensils.