Food safety knowledge, attitudes and practices of street food vendors in Jashore region, Bangladesh

Dipak Kumar Paul,Nazia Nawshad Lina,Ashish Kumar Das,Md Mohibul Hasan,Md Jannatul Ferdaus,Shital Kumar Barman,Rajib Kanti Roy,Md Toufik Hossen

doi:10.1590/fst.13320

Dipak Kumar Paul, Nazia Nawshad Lina + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/fst.13320

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Abstract

Most people now have their meals outside their homes and are vulnerable to illness caused by food. Unsafe food preparation and supply by vendors have made food safety a concern for public health. Jashore is a densely populated city, this study was designed to evaluate food safety knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of food vendors in Jashore region, Bangladesh. A randomized descriptive cross-sectional study on food safety KAP was conducted among 200 food vendors. Where 96% were male food vendors, 72.5% were smokers, and 63% were found to be overweight or obese. While 72.5% vendors had good knowledge of food safety, only 33% and 0.5% had good food safety attitude and practice, respectively. Among the socio-demographic factors investigated, only the level of education showed significant influence (p = 0.005 and 0.015) on the food safety knowledge and practice of the vendors. While handling food, over 90% vendors did not use any personal protective equipment, 4.5% had diarrhoea, 8.5% did not wash their hands after going to the toilet and 28.5% reused previous leftover oils. The data suggest that the overall food safety knowledge of suppliers in the Jashore region is good but their attitudes and practices need to be improved.

Highlights

Street food (SF) and beverages are ready-to-eat food items prepared and sold by vendors in different public places especially in streets and crowded bus or train stations in Bangladesh as well as other countries around the world (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013; Winarno & Alain, 1991)
The study demonstrated that the level of food hygiene knowledge was satisfactory in food vendors of the studied area
The food vendors had adequate food safety knowledge and attitudes, they had a poor understanding of safe food handling, which was reflected in their largely inadequate facilities and unhygienic practices during the vending of the foods

Summary

Introduction

Street food (SF) and beverages are ready-to-eat food items prepared and sold by vendors in different public places especially in streets and crowded bus or train stations in Bangladesh as well as other countries around the world (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2013; Winarno & Alain, 1991). Worldwide increase of unemployment and poverty are the key factors behind people tend to run street food businesses, because it requires minimal experience and capital to set up (Addo-Tham et al, 2020; King et al, 2000). It plays a vital socio-economic role by providing food and nutritional supports to the lower and middle-income people at a reasonably low price and is valued for the unique taste of its food items (Khairuzzaman et al, 2014). Around 2.5 billion people worldwide consume street foods per day (Fellows & Hilmi, 2011)

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