Articles

Food Hygiene and Sanitary Condition Awareness among Street Food Vendors

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The objective of this study was to investigate the level of awareness among the street food vendors in Barangay Saber, Marawi City specifically regarding food hygiene and sanitary condition. The researcher utilized a descriptive-survey research design using survey-questionnaires as the primary tool to figure out the problems in sustaining food safeties for the consumers. These street food vendors play an important role in the economy by making goods more accessible and affordable, as well as providing livelihood opportunities for people with few job options in the city. The survey-questionnaires were contained of two parts, part one, socio-demographic profile of respondents and part two were the problems on food street vendors’ food hygiene and sanitation awareness in terms of food serving and surrounding sanitation. A total of forty-one (41) street food vendors participated in the study. Moreover, the study employed frequency, percentage distribution and weighed mean with the aid of SPSS Software as statistical tools used to understand the data and interpret the results properly. The results revealed that all the identified indicators that may influenced the maintaining of proper hygiene and sanitary of food establishments of the street vendors were positively perceived by the respondents. The street food vendors were properly aware on the important of food hygiene which is part of food safety and ensuring the health and well-being of the consumers. The average weighted mean is 2.70 or “often” as descriptively define. Results implied that these street food vendors were observing properly the importance of cleanliness to prevent their customers from illnesses due to negligence on proper handling of foods and maintaining the positive environment.

Educational Intervention Aimed at Street Food Vendors to Improve Knowledge and Practices on Food Safety and Hygiene

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Background: Street foods is ready- to- eat foods and beverages prepared which are sold by vendors in streets and other public places for immediate consumption or consumption at a later time without further processing or preparation. Street vended foods forms a distinctive part of food industry because they are mostly affordable, easily accessible. Food handlers play an important role in food safety and in transmission of food poisoning, because they can introduce pathogens into foods during production, processing, distribution and serving. Therefore, the understanding of food safety procedures and the potential factors that causes food borne diseases is very essential for all food handlers.
Objective: The study was conducted with the objective of assessing the level of knowledge and practices on food safety and hygiene in street food vendors and improve the knowledge and practices through an educational intervention targeting the street food vendors.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge and practices of the street food vendors. An educational intervention was carried out using the mode of one-to-one knowledge sharing discussion facilitated by pictorial materials. The intervention was conducted in all street food vendors in a selected medical Officer of Health area in the Colombo district. Similar MOH area in the Colombo district was used as the control area. Interviewer administered questionnaire was used to assess the level of knowledge and a checklist was used to assess the practices.
Results: The knowledge and practices level were not satisfactory in the baseline study. The knowledge improved in a statistically significant proportion (P<0.05) following the intervention in the intervention group. However, the level of improvement of practices was not statistically significant at the post interventional assessment (P>0.05).
Conclusions: The intervention was successful in improving the knowledge of the street food vendors significantly. However, the practice level did not show a statistically significant improvement.