FOOD SAFETY AND HYGIENE PRACTICES IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HOME-GROWN SCHOOL FEEDING PROGRAM AMONG PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS OGUN STATE

Ensuring food safety in school feeding programs is vital to protecting children’s health and improving educational outcomes. However, poor hygiene practices among food handlers remain a persistent challenge in many low-resource settings. This study evaluated food safety and hygiene practices among food handlers involved in the Home-Grown School Feeding Program (HGSFP) in public primary schools within Ijebu Ode and Sagamu Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Ogun State, Nigeria. The HGSFP aims to improve child nutrition, enhance school attendance, and support local agriculture. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was adopted. A simple random sampling was used to select public primary schools, while convenient sampling was employed to recruit 254 food handlers working under the HGSFP. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire covering socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of food safety, hygiene practices, and challenges faced. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS version 25. Findings revealed that the majority of respondents were female (93.7%), with the largest age group being 36–45 years (54.3%). Most food handlers were married (76.8%), and 47.6% had at least a secondary school education. While 94.9% of respondents reported washing hands before cooking and 94.5% used clean water, 71.3% demonstrated poor food safety knowledge. Only 4.7% achieved good overall hygiene practice scores. The main challenge was inadequate water supply (77.6%), followed by poor kitchen utensils (37.8%) and insufficient funding (23.6%). These gaps highlight a mismatch between self-reported practices and underlying knowledge, suggesting that many handlers follow routines without fully understanding their importance. The study recommends continuous, standardized training programs, improved kitchen infrastructure, and reliable water supply to enhance compliance with food safety protocols. Keywords: Food Safety, Hygiene Practices, School Feeding Program, Public Health.