Introduction: the concept of food security and nutrition is based on the regular and sufficient access to food of adequate quality and it implies food safety as one of its dimensions. Objective: to analyze the sanitary and hygienic conditions of food handling in households in Chapecó (SC), Brazil. Materials and Methods: descriptive study with 138 households selected by systematic sampling to a 5% significance level and a 4% acceptable error. We applied a questionnaire to the person who was the responsible for food handling in each household. We used descriptive and inferential statistics and we interpreted the data according to health vulnerability framework. Results: we highlight that 50.7% (n=70) reported to just wash vegetables with water, 71% (n=98) reported to wash cutting boards with detergent and cold water, 33, 3% (n=46) reported the use of raw eggs. There was no association between the source of water supply and sanitary failures observed. Conclusions: safe food handling procedures are not adopted in a reasonable proportion of households, which may explain the vulnerability to foodborne diseases in these environments.