Evaluation of microbial safety knowledge, attitude and practice of street food vendors and consumers in Can Tho City, Vietnam

Abstract

Street foods have become much more popular in Vietnam. However, the information on the safety of street food sold in Vietnam and food knowledge safety as well as awareness of both Vietnamese vendors and consumers is very limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitude, and practice in food safety of street food consumers and vendors who volunteered to participate in the study in Can Tho city, Vietnam. This study was conducted in two parts. In the first part, 838 food consumers and 598 food handlers were interviewed via a questionnaire to assess their food safety knowledge and attitude. The second part focused on the observation of the food handling practice of the vendors by means of a checklist. Results indicated that consumers and vendors generally exhibited average food safety knowledge and attitude levels. The consumers and vendors were determined to have higher levels of food safety attitude than knowledge, whilst trained consumers and vendors had better food safety knowledge and attitude compared to untrained consumers and vendors. The observation study showed that the majority of the vendors had unhygienic practice i.e. handled food with bare hands (84.5%), handled money while serving food (92.3%) and without washing hands after handling money (93.3%), etc. These results justify the need for training the vendors about food safety knowledge and practice and further additional studies of street foods and their potential risk of foodborne illness.