WASHplus Weekly – Focus on Food Hygiene, April 7, 2015
The theme for this year’s World Health Day, April 7, 2015, is food safety. Food hygiene is an important component of food safety. Handwashing before preparing and eating food is a critical hygiene practice. Proper food preparation and storage are also important to prevent contamination. This issue contains information on an upcoming webinar on food hygiene from the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing, a WASHplus training package from Uganda, a technical brief from the FANTA project, a policy brief from the SHARE project, and other resources.
EVENTS
April 7, 2015 – World Health Day 2015: Food Safety. World Health Organization (WHO). | Website | Fact Sheet | 5 Keys to Safer Food | Basic Steps to Improve Safety of Street-Vended Food |
What is in your meal? Where did the ingredients come from? Were they properly—and safely—handled at every stage, from farm to plate? WHO is advocating for action in these areas on this World Health Day as it calls on producers, policy makers, and the public to promote food safety.
April 7, 2015 – Handwashing and Global Food Hygiene: A World Health Day Webinar. Link
Join the Global Public-Private Partnership for Handwashing (PPPHW) for a webinar to celebrate this year’s World Health Day theme: food safety. Food hygiene is a particularly relevant topic for handwashing. Join this webinar to explore why food hygiene matters for child health in the global context. Om Prasad Gautam will discuss a creative food and handwashing behavior change intervention in Nepal, and WASHplus Deputy Director Julia Rosenbaum will talk about small doable actions to better integrate food hygiene into WASH programs.
REPORTS/TRAINING RESOURCES/PRESENTATIONS
Improving Household Food Hygiene in a Development Context, April 2015. M Woldt, FANTA. Link
This new technical brief focuses on recommendations and critical actions to reduce the risk of foodborne illness at the household level.
You Are What You Eat: Why Food Hygiene Matters for Child Growth, 2015. J Rosenbaum, M Weinger. WASHplus. Presentation
This USAID/WASHplus presentation at the Global Health Mini-University emphasized the following: integrate WASH into nutrition and other child health activities; ensure food hygiene is an essential part of diarrhea prevention and WASH; and make it feasible for households using small doable actions.
Integrating Safe Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene into Infant and Child Nutrition Programmes: A Training and Resource Pack for Uganda, 2014. WASHplus. Link
A section of the training manual is on WASH and Food Hygiene and it discusses: the link between WASH and safe food; understanding the food chain; how to keep food safe; and identifying small doable actions to promote food hygiene.
Reducing Environmental Enteropathy and Child Growth Faltering: An Intervention Trial Update. S Luby, 2014. Presentation
In a presentation given at FHI 360 in June 2014, Dr. Luby discusses the increasing evidence for linkages between environmental enteropathy and stunting and how food hygiene may be a particularly important area for attention during weaning, a critical nutritional transition that exposes the child to pathogens that can lead to diarrhea and other detrimental outcomes.
Complementary Food Hygiene: An Overlooked Opportunity in the WASH, Nutrition and Health Sectors—Policy Brief, 2015. O Prasad Gautam, SHARE. Link
Poor complementary food hygiene may account for a substantial proportion of diarrheal diseases among infants and young children in developing countries, which in turn, account for a large proportion of the global burden of infectious disease. However, most of the information on food hygiene in low income countries derives from expert opinion and biological plausibility rather than robust epidemiological evidence. This briefing paper documents the Sanitation and Hygiene Applied Research for Equity’s (SHARE) contribution to narrowing the evidence gap, highlights opportunities for future research, and offers insights that could influence policy and improve programming in the WASH, nutrition, and health sectors globally.
Om Prasad Gautam’s Blog. Link
Om Prasad Gautam works with SHARE and is studying a food hygiene intervention to improve food hygiene behaviors and reduce food contamination and the diarrheal disease burden in Nepal. The blog features a January 2015 video on the Food Hygiene Intervention in Nepaland other updates about his research.
Assessing Handling of Complementary Foods towards Prevention of Iron Losses among Infants in Keiyo South Subcounty, Kenya. Food Sci Qual Mgmt, 36 2015. F Onyangore. Link
Unhygienic complementary foods at the commencement of feeding are a major cause of diarrhea, and evaluating hygiene status of complementary foods at the household level using concepts such as the Hazard Analysis Critical Control system is still problematic. The article concludes with the recommendation that hygiene programs focus on proper ways of preparing and handling complementary foods that minimize risks of bacterial contamination.
Caregiver Behavior Change for Child Survival and Development in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: An Examination of the Evidence. Jnl Health Commun, Sept 2014. J Elder. Link
Multiple strategies have been developed and tested to teach handwashing skills to caretakers and their children. These interventions can be delivered to individuals, families, and communities. Mass media interventions delivered to communities have the capability of reaching a large number of people to motivate them to engage in hygienic practices but may be limited in their ability to teach hygienic skills.
Risk Factors for Diarrhea in Children Under Five Years of Age Residing in Peri-Urban Communities in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Am Jnl Trop Med Hyg, Oct 2014. CM George. Abstract/order info
This study examined the relationship between childhood diarrhea prevalence and caregiver knowledge of the causes and prevention of diarrhea in a prospective cohort of 952 children under 5 years of age in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The survey of caregiver knowledge found that more than 80 percent of caregivers were unaware that handwashing with soap could prevent childhood diarrhea. Furthermore, when asked how to keep food safe for children to eat, only 17 percent of caregivers reported handwashing before cooking and feeding a child. Lack of caregiver awareness of the importance of practices related to hygiene and sanitation for diarrhea prevention were significant risk factors for diarrheal disease in this cohort.
Preventing Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM) through Nutrition-Sensitive Interventions, 2014. N Mucha. Link
This technical brief examines current evidence, knowledge, and practice relating to the prevention of moderate acute malnutrition through nutrition-sensitive interventions in various sectors. This brief was developed based on a review of many types of evidence including “grey” research, published research, systematic literature reviews, ongoing impact evaluations, and other plausible, systematically collected research.
Identifying Determinants of Effective Complementary Feeding Behaviour Change Interventions in Developing Countries. Maternal & Child Nutrition, May 2014. C Fabrizio.Link
As stunting moves to the forefront of the global agenda, there is substantial evidence that behavior change interventions (BCI) can improve infant feeding practices and growth. However, this evidence has not been translated into improved outcomes on a national level because we do not know enough about what makes these interventions work, for whom, when, why, at what cost, and for how long. The objective of this study is to examine the design and implementation of complementary feeding BCI, from the peer-reviewed literature, to identify generalizable key determinants.
Aflatoxins and Fumonisins Contamination of Home-Made Food (Weanimix) from Cereal-Legume Blends for Children. Ghana Med J, Sept 2014. J Kumi. Link
Children fed on homemade weanimix, a nutrient-dense complementary food, are being exposed to unacceptable levels of aflatoxin and fumonisin. Therefore, mothers need to be educated about the dangers posed by exposure to toxins produced by mold and strategies need to be developed to eliminate exposure of children fed homemade weanimix to these toxins.
Implementing Effective Hygiene Promotion: Lessons from the Process Evaluation of an Intervention to Promote Handwashing with Soap in Rural India. BMC Public Health, 14 2014. Link
The SuperAmma intervention, which employed messages of disgust, social aspiration, nurture, and norms, appears to have been successful in changing handwashing behavior and sustaining that change up to a year post intervention.
Managing Hygiene Promotion in WASH Programmes, 2014. WEDC. Link
A number of studies have suggested that the impact of hygiene practices on sanitation-related disease could be as great as that of the actual provision of sanitation facilities. Effective hygiene promotion is widely believed to be one of the most valuable tools we have to change people’s behavior, which in turn can protect them from diarrheal diseases. It can also be a helpful way to encourage participation and empower communities. Despite the acceptance of its importance, hygiene promotion is often given far less emphasis than traditional water supply and sanitation activities in development settings. This guide is designed to help address this issue.
Food Hygiene and Safety Practices (FHSP) among Street Food Vendors in a Low-Income Urban Community of a Metropolis in Ghana, 2014. B Dwumfour-Asare. Link
The aim of this paper is to assess food hygiene and safety practices among street food vendors in a Ghanaian city. The study involved interviewing and observing 50 street food vendors. Almost all vendors are females, more than half lack a formal education, and few possess permits. The study proposed and tested a rapid assessment framework for food vendors. The framework appears promising and shows that food hygiene and safety practices are low—only 28 percent of vendors achieved a basic practice level.
An Overview on Mycotoxin Contamination of Foods in Africa. J Vet Med Sci, June 2014. W Darwish. Link
The available, updated information on the incidence of mycotoxin contamination, decontamination, and its public health importance in Africa is lacking. The aim of this review is to highlight, update, and discuss the available information on the incidence of mycotoxins in African countries. The public health implications and the recommended strategies for control of mycotoxins in food and agricultural crops are also discussed.
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