Highlights• Food hygiene and safety research in Ghana focussed on commercial catering in Accra.• Institutional catering hygiene practices and effect on food safety was unavailable.• Food allergens and physical hazards in food in the country were not identified.• Food hygiene training and other PRP required legalisation in support of the Food Law.• Agents in charge of food handlers monitoring and surveillance required improvement. AbstractFood safety and hygiene in Ghana was studied using desk top literature review. Food research was highly concentrated in the capital city of the country and most research focus were on commercial food operations specifically street foods and microbiological safety with limited information from institutional catering and other forms of food hazards. The media currently serves as the main source for reporting of food borne diseases. Food establishments and other sources contributing to food borne diseases included restaurants, food joints, food vendors, schools and individual homes. Limited use of prerequisites measures and food safety management systems was identified. Recommendations on regulating the General Hygiene Principles, implementation of HACCP to strengthen the food sector, regular food safety and hygiene workshops and training for food handlers that commensurate with their roles were made. Government support for SMEs and food handler's health screening were made.

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Get rights and content Highlights•Good hygiene practices intervention in the form of training improved kitchen staff hygiene awareness scores.•Staff temperature and time monitoring for ready to eat (RTE) meals' significantly improved after training.•Microbiological contaminants (ACC, coliforms, yeast and moulds, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) in RTE meals reduced with a significant reduction in Aerobic Colony Count (ACC) and Staphylococcus aureus levels after training. AbstractEleven schools in three different hygiene categories were given hygiene training as an intervention to reported low hygiene standards. Staff hygiene knowledge scores, food temperature, food service time and microbiological quality of jollof rice (cooked rice in tomato sauce and fish) were measured before and after the intervention. Descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon's Signed-Rank Test for repeated measures on SPSS were used to evaluate the effect of GHP intervention. Staff hygiene knowledge and practice scores, food temperature, aerobic colony count (ACC) and Staphylococcus aureus load in ready to eat (RTE) meal improved significantly (p≤0.05). Food hygiene training remains an essential legal and industrial requirement.