Key Food Hygiene Behaviors to Reduce Microbial Food Contamination in Rural Bangladesh. (7th June 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mueller-Hauser, Anna; Sobhan, Shafinaz; Huda, Tarique Md. Nurul; Waid, Jillian; Wendt, Amanda; Islam, Aminul; Rahman, Mahbubur; Gabrysch, Sabine
• Is Part Of: Current developments in nutrition. Volume 5(2021)Supplement 2
• Page Start: 669
• Page End: 669
• Publication Date: 2021-06-07
• Subjects: Nutrition -- Periodicals; Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Nutrition; Periodicals; Periodicals; Fulltext; Internet Resources; Periodicals; 612.3
• DOI: 10.1093/cdn/nzab045_051
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2475-2991

Abstract

Abstract: Objectives: Microbial contamination of complementary foods, which puts young children at risk of developing intestinal infections, could be reduced by improved handwashing and food hygiene practices. We quantify the effect of maternal food hygiene practices on complementary food contamination in order to identify food hygiene behaviors with the greatest impact in our study population. Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data on food hygiene practices and measured Escherichia coli counts as an indicator of microbial contamination in complementary food samples from 342 households of the Food and Agricultural Approaches to Reducing Malnutrition (FAARM) trial in Sylhet, Bangladesh. We used multivariable logistic regression to examine associations of maternal food hygiene behaviors with food contamination. Results: About 46% of complementary food samples had detectable levels of Escherichia coli. Handwashing with soap at five critical times (OR: 0.7, 95% CI: 0.6 – 0.9), cleanliness of feeding utensils (OR: 0.4, 95% CI: 0.2 – 0.9), and fresh preparation of food before feeding (OR: 0.1, 95% CI: 0.08 – 0.3) were strongly associated with reduced food contamination, while there was no or only weak evidence that reheating of stored food and safe storage of food reduced contamination. The reduction in food contamination was larger when food hygiene behaviors were practiced in combination. Conclusions: Adoption of single food hygiene practices showed limited potential and a combined practice of multiple food hygiene behaviors is needed to achieve a substantial reduction of complementary food contamination. Funding Sources: The German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) is the primary funder for the FAARM trial. FAARM's Food Hygiene to reduce Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (FHEED) work was financially supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and Foundation Fiat Panis.