This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a newly developed food safety education to improve the handwashing
practices of food handlers in school canteens. A community-based intervention study was carried out over a 2-year period.
Sixteen out of 98 primary schools were randomly selected and assigned into intervention and control groups using a
simple random sampling method. The study population included food handlers who worked in the canteens of the school
selected. The Food Safety Education Programme (FSEP) for the intervention group was developed based on the theory of
planned behaviour. The main outcome measures used were handwashing practices from the observations carried out at
baseline, 6-weeks (Post1) and 12-weeks (Post2) after the intervention. Out of 79 food handlers who participated in this
study, 33 (41.8%) were in the intervention group and 46 (58.2%) were in the control group. Prior to FSEP, handwashing
was not commonly practiced following critical events and the majority did not perform correctly. The time-effect of the
mixed design analysis of variance showed a significant increase (p=0.004) in the mean percentage of the total observed
handwashing practices from 29% at the baseline to 50.8% at Post1 (p=0.004). However, the intervention-effect of mixed
design ANOVA did not show any significant difference in the handwashing practices (p=0.210). The FSEP was effective in
improving the handwashing practices of the food handlers in the selected primary school canteens.