A survey of hygiene and sanitary practices of street food vendors in the Central State of Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the general hygiene and sanitary practices of street food venders in Nigeria. 110 random samples of street food venders were selected to represent 18% of street food venders in the study area. Data was collected using pre-test structured questionnaire and observation checklists. The relationships in the factors studied were determined. Food venders lacked basic training on hygiene and only 2.7% had formal training on food preparation. 63.6% acquired skills from parents while 33.7% acquired skills by self practice. 44.5% of vendors used their mouths to blow air into polythene bags to open, before using it to package foods for customers. 60.0% of the vendors prepared foods in unkempt environment with flies around the foods. The study indicated absence of evidence of relationship between venders' education and vending location as well as between gender and personal hygiene. This study largely suggested non-compliance with the Codex Alimentarius Commission guidelines for street food control in Africa. The non regulation of street food vending business in Africa especially Nigeria portends danger of outbreak of food poisoning.

Socio-Economic Determinants of Away-From-Home Grilled Meat Consumption and Typology of Grilled Meat Actors in Bobo-Dioulasso, West-Burkina-Faso

“…66.4% of the street food vendors had either primary or no education. Only 2.7% of them had tertiary education [14]. In order to be knowledgeable of marketing activities, processing and consumption of pork meat in N'Djamena and surrounding areas, a study conducted by Mopate et al [15] revelated that the pork meat vendors were young and educated men with mean between 31 and 45 years.…”

Safety of bread for human consumption in an urban community in Southwestern Nigeria

“…The unwholesome practice of cleaning bread with foam has never been reported in literature and is a major mechanism for contamination of bread as it provides ample opportunity to expose the bread to handling with hands that are rarely ever washed before handling bread; the hands that are used to receive money in between transactions which has been reported in a study by Nurudeen et al (2014).…”

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of food hygiene among mobile food vendors in a Nigerian rural settlement

“…10,11,16,17 However, the food vendors surveyed in Nairobi, Western and Northern Nigeria had no formal education. 15,[18][19][20] In this study more than half of the respondents had a good knowledge of food hygiene with a mean knowledge percentage score of 78%. This may have been due to the high literacy levels of the food vendors surveyed.…”

“…2 Most vendors however have little or no formal education, which makes them unable to appreciate the most critical food handling practices. 3,4 Consumers have thus borne the consequences when food is unsafe. The extent of the problem is difficult to estimate particularly in developing countries but given that in excess of 2million people, mostly children, die from diarrhoea each year, a great proportion of these cases can be attributed to the contamination of food as well as drinking water.…”