Hygiene in Restaurants and among Street Food Vendors in Bangladesh

Abstract

Poor hand hygiene and food handling put consumers of restaurant and street food at risk of enteric disease, especially in low-income countries. This study aimed to collect hygiene indicators from a nationally representative sample of restaurants and street food vendors. The field team collected data from 50 rural villages and 50 urban administrative units (mahallas). We explored restaurant service staff, cook, and food vendor hygiene practices (N = 300 restaurants and 600 street food vendors), by observing hygiene facilities, food handling, and utensil cleaning. A qualitative assessment explored perceptions of hygiene related to food handling. During restaurant spot checks, 91% (273/300) had soap and water at handwashing location for customers but in only 33% (100) at locations convenient for restaurant staff. Among street food–vending stalls, 11% (68/600) had soap and water when observed. During 90-minute structured observations, cooks used soap to wash hands on 14/514 (3%) of occasions before food preparation, 6/82 (8%) occasions after cutting fish/meat/vegetables, 3/71 (4%) occasions before serving food, and 0/49 (0%) occasions) before hand-mashing food/salad preparation; no street food vendors washed hands with soap during these food-handling events. Most of the qualitative study participants perceived that customers select a vendor based on tastiness of the food, whereas no one mentioned the importance of food hygiene. The study demonstrates widespread poor hygiene and food-handling practices in restaurants and among food vendors. Based on our study findings, we proposed a food premises Hygiene Investigation Model to create action plans to improve food safety.

Health and Land-Use Courses of Action for Education for Sustainable Development in Madagascar: Teacher Perspectives on Possibilities for Implementation

“…The IBM-WASH model was also applied to evaluate a WASH intervention for reducing improper trash disposal in communal toilets [49] and a combination of various interventions, such as hygiene education, provision of hardware, and WASH events [50]. Furthermore, the IBM-WASH model has been used to understand the opportunities and challenges for a specific behavior, such as hygiene practices in food preparation [51,52]. The IBM-WASH model has also been applied in South America to evaluate WASH technologies, such as drinking water chlorination [53] and baby bottle disinfection [54], as well as to understand behavior regarding latrine use [55].…”

Relationship of knowledge and attitude with food handling practices: A systematic review

“…Another study showed that 2.5% of samples tested positive for Escherichia coli in food taken from meat sold by food colonizers [10]. Bangladesh National Hygiene Baseline Survey research as traders only know about 37% of cleanliness, potentially triggering foodborne disease [11]. In Saudi Arabia, the foodborne disease outbreak has infected catering food vendors, amounting to 1.26% of the 1000 catering food sellers [12].…”

International culinary influence on street food: an observatory study

“…Researchers around the world have similar interests in working on hygiene and safety practices related to street food near their places. For instance, some latest research works have been completed in countries such as China (Dai, Zhong, & Scott, 2019), Bangladesh (Nizame, Alam, Masud, Shoab, Opel, Islam, Luby, & Unicomb, 2019), Ghana (Ghartey, Adu-Oppong, & Doku, 2019), Ethiopia (Tadesse, Mitiku, Teklemariam, & Marami, 2019), and Namibia (Shiningeni, Chimwamurombe, Shilangale, & Misihairabgwi, 2019) addressing food hygiene, safety and microbial quality found in the street food. One study was completed in Florida, USA relating to regulations and its challenges for street food inspection (Okumus & Sonmez, 2019).…”