Who Are More Competent in Food Safety: Veterinary Medicine or Food Hygiene Students?

Abstract

In response to the decreasing number of veterinary medicine graduates interested in working in the food sector and public health, the competency of students from a food safety-related university major-named "Food Hygiene" (FH) for taking the responsibilities of a veterinarian in the field of hygienic food production-was assessed in the present study. In this regard, a cross-sectional study was conducted in 2022 at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran to evaluate the food safety knowledge (K), attitude (A), and practice (P) among the students from FH (n = 73), veterinary medicine (vet, n = 28), and other majors (n = 40). Results showed that FH and vet respondents demonstrated comparable food safety knowledge (∼58%), attitude (68.8%-74-8%) and practice (71.3%-76.4%) scores. Moreover, based on the detailed responses, the FH participants could satisfactorily respond to the questions regarding the safe production, preservation, and handling of foods of animal origin. In conclusion, our findings reveal the potential capability of an FH graduate to handle the tasks of public health veterinarians, particularly in the field of primary production hygiene of animal-based foods. Moreover, based on our findings, it is recommended that additional specific courses related to the production, processing, and hygiene of nonanimal food products be added to the FH program.