ABSTRACT

 This research is aimed at determining knowledge, attitude, perception, and practice offood safety and hygiene among nursing mothers attending post-natal care in Umuahia North. During the course of this work, six objectives and 35 KAPP research questions were formulated and validated by lecturers in the department. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics where mean and standard deviation were used for decisionmaking. The result obtained revealed that 33.6% ofthe respondents were aged 21-25 years and 23.9% were aged 26-30 years. It also obtained that 42.0% of the respondents are Christian and 24.8% are Muslims. Half of the respondents (46.9%) lives in 2-3-bedroom apartment and only 46.9% ofthem acquired B.Sc. qualification. Some ofthe respondents (28.3%) earn between 51,000- 70,000 in Naira while 22.1% earn between 30,000- 50,000 in Naira. However, 46.5% ofthe respondents are traders and 43.8% worked as civil servants while only 9.7% are housewives. The result obtained revealed that there is a knowledge of food safety and hygiene among nursing mothers in Umuahia North. This is revealed by the grand mean of 3.38 which is above the benchmark of 3.00 for decision-making Hence, it was confirmed that there is a knowledge offood safety and hygiene of nursing mothers in Umuahia North. Secondly, there is a positive perception and attitude of food safety and hygiene among nursing mothers. This is revealed by the grand mean of3.89 which is above the benchmark of3.00 for decision-making. Hence, it was confirmed that there is a positive perception and attitude offood safety and hygiene among nursing mothers. Thirdly, there is a positive practice offood safety and hygiene among nursing mothers in Umuahia North. This is revealed by the grand mean of 3.50 which is above the benchmark of 3.00 for decision-making, it was confirmed that there is a positive practice of food safety and hygiene among nursing mothers in Umuahia North. Finally, the age ofthe nursing mother, level of education of the nursing mother, culture of the nursing mother, ethnicity of the nursing mother, family size ofthe nursing mother, mother, level of attitude ofthe nursing mother, training received by nursing mother are the factors that influence safety and hygiene pattern among the nursing mothers. This is revealed by the grand mean of 3.60 which is above the benchmark of 3.00 for decision making using the 5 Likert scale. However, the response indicates that religion does not influence food safety and hygiene of nursing mothers. Hence, it was confirmed that seven out of the eight enlisted factors influence positively food safety and hygiene pattern among nursing mothers in Umuahia North. Based on the findings, it is recommended that it is imperative to increase mother’s awareness about the proper food handling practices, prevention offood-borne disease, and how to provide safer food for family members that affect their health and their quality of life, that nutritionist/dietitian should emphasize on providing an educational program tailored to educate each mother in the community about food safety, also that there should be effective use of public awareness campaigns to positively influence mothers’ attitudes and practices, encouraging them to exercise caution when buying, storing, handling and preparing food