Assessment of hygienic practices among street food vendors in Sekondi, Ghana

Abstract

Food poisoning, food borne diseases and food safety have been declared a major public health concern and street foods have been associated with microbiological contamination and low hygienic standards (WHO, 2006). The objective of the study was to examine the factors that influence the choice of location for street food vending, to assess the safety practices of handling and serving of food by street food vendors and to examine sanitary conditions under which street food vendors operate. Descriptive design was used for the study and simple random sample was used in selecting 85 informal street food venders to respond to researcher assisted questionnaire. A self- designed structured questionnaire as well as an observational checklist was used to collect data from the street food vendors.The major findings of the study were that the most significant factor influencing the choice of location of food vendors is closeness to customers; it was also noted that in most cases the food vendors did not choose a location due to the cleanliness of the surrounding environment. Forty per cent of the respondents made contact with food with their bare hands; there were no open sewages near all the vending sites; most (65%) of the food vendors operate near open drains, 20% of the food vending outlets were located near waste dump sites and 60% of the food vending outlets did not have dustbins available for waste storage. The study concluded that the most significant factor influencing the choice of location of food vendors is closeness to customers, and therefore vendors did not consider sanitary conditions around their vending points. Thus, the safety of food vendors‘ food handling practices was compromised. It was recommended that the environmental health officials should embark on frequent media and personal education of the food vendors on safe food handling practices.