Food safety knowledge and practices of pregnant women and postpartum mothers in Slovenia

Jevšnik Podlesnik, Mojca (author), Česen, Anja (author), Šantić, Marina (author), Ovca, Andrej (author)

Food safety during pregnancy and postpartum is important for preventing foodborne diseases, while pregnant women are considered vulnerable due to their immunomodulatory condition. The current study aimed to investigate the self-reported food safety knowledge and practices of pregnant women and postpartum mothers in Slovenia using an online questionnaire and to compare the results with nonpregnant women as a control group. The study was conducted with 426 women, of whom 145 were pregnant, 191 were not pregnant, and 90 were postpartum. The online questionnaire consisted of questions related to food safety risk perception, hand hygiene, food purchase, food storage, food preparation and handling of infant formula and breast milk. The results showed that women generally have basic knowledge of proper food handling and are aware of food safety, but some specific gaps were identified in food handling at home, especially concerning microbiological risks. However, the results showed that pregnant women performed better than the postpartum group, and both groups performed significantly better than the nonpregnant group. The media was most frequently cited as a source of food safety information, especially by the pregnant group. Trained health workers should also inform women on how to ensure food safety in the home environment.

• Language: English
• Keywords: food safety, food handling, pregnancy, postpartum, expressed breast milk, infant formula
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: ZF - Faculty of Health Sciences
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Submitted for review: 14.09.2021
• Article acceptance date: 07.10.2021
• Publication date: 12.10.2021
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 1-12, article 2412
• Numbering: Vol. 10, iss. 10
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-132125
• UDC: 614.31:618.2/.7
• ISSN on article: 2304-8158
• DOI: 10.3390/foods10102412
• COBISS.SI-ID: 80355843
• Publication date in RUL: 13.10.2021

JEVŠNIK PODLESNIK, Mojca, ČESEN, Anja, ŠANTIĆ, Marina and OVCA, Andrej, 2021, Food safety knowledge and practices of pregnant women and postpartum mothers in Slovenia. Foods [online]. 2021. Vol. 10, no. 10, p. 1–12, article  2412. [Accessed 14 June 2025]. DOI 10.3390/foods10102412. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=132125

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Foods
• Shortened title: Foods
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2304-8158
• COBISS.SI-ID: 512252472

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 12.10.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: varnost hrane, ravnanje s hrano, nosečnost, poporodna doba, iztisnjeno materino mleko, formula za dojenčke

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P3-0388
• Name: Mehanizmi varovanja zdravja