Abstract:
Food safety is an important part of public health that links health to agriculture and other food production sectors. For over a century, developments in food production and new control philosophies have contributed to food safety systems in most developed countries to be efficient in the prevention of food borne diseases. Seniors are at particular risk of food borne illnesses because of their weaken immune systems, decrease in stomach acidity and intestinal peristalsis, increase in the use of antibiotics and antacids drugs. The aim: The study aimed to assess the knowledge of the elderly people and their caregivers about food safety. The present study was carried out at Assiut city (urban) and Assiut district (rural) in Assiut governorate. Design: descriptive cross sectional research design. The subjects were 10% of the total number of the elderly people from every area was selected who aged 60 years and above and their caregivers involved in the study who available during the time of data collection. The total number of the studied subjects of the elderly was 720 (340 from urban and 380 from rural areas) and their caregivers (135 subjects). The results: The results revealed that (44.1%) of the urban and (52.1%) the rural elderly in addition to the majority of the urban caregivers (80%) and less than one fifth of the rural caregivers (17%) referred to the house wife as responsible for food safety, the majority of both the urban elderly (85.0%) and their caregivers (88.6%) and (62.4%) of the rural elderly and (69.0%) from their caregivers identify the presence of different diseases caused by contaminated food. Conclusion: the studied subjects from both the elderly and their caregivers had a lack of knowledge regarding the responsibility of food safety, the non-recommended food for the elderly, using of food engineering, pesticide residue elimination from the food.