Cuidados com higiene e manipulação de frutos, hortaliças e embalagens em tempos de pandemia Covid-19

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the knowledge and application of students, from an educational institution in Teresina-PI, about the correct measures of hygiene and handling of fruits and vegetables before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 health crisis has demonstrated the importance of food safety and good hygiene practices in ensuring safe food. In this context, a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative-qualitative approach was carried out through responses obtained in online questionnaires. All students of the Food Technology course over 18 years old participated in the research. After the application, it was possible to contemplate a sample composed of 38 participants. Where the following results can be obtained: with regard to knowledge about food contamination, 95.73% (36) students reported having knowledge and another 5.26% (2) reported not having heard about the subject and considering the period during the pandemic, 99% (37) of the students stated that they had adopted care as good practices for food handling, showing that there was greater interest in cleaning food after the emergence of the pandemic. It was observed that students showed greater care with the hygiene of food packaging during the pandemic period when compared to the period before the pandemic. However, the knowledge reported by students may not be in-depth enough to ensure its satisfactory execution. Since some inconsistencies were found in the answers, in which there was, for example, some confusion when describing the steps of cleaning and sanitizing food and packaging.