Knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of street food vendors on food safety in selected areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

This study determined the food-safety situation of street food by analyzing the KAP of street food vendors (SFVs). A quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the 266 SFVs through structured questionnaire from October to December, 2020. Majority of the SFVs were male (92.86%), age between 35 to 44 years (34.21%), married (83.83%), had primary education (46.99%), experience of 5–9 years (32.71%), and monthly income was <10000 BDT (35.71%). Additionally, utmost had no any training on food-safety (93.61%), and food preparation-preservation (89.47%). The knowledge and practice score of “≥50 to <75” was for highest proportion of SFVs amounting 57.89% and 47.7% respectively. And the attitudes score “≥67 to <83” was recorded for the highest number of SFVs (70.3%). Moreover, the mean KAP score was 71.94 ± 10.21, 73.89 ± 7.37 and 55.37 ± 15.08 respectively. However, the knowledge score had a moderate-strength of positive correlation with attitudes score (r = 0.342, p < 0.01) and practice score (r = 0.389, p < 0.01); having the regression-equation, y = 0.25∗x + 56.12 and y = 0.57∗x + 14.01 respectively. Besides, the similar correlation was also observed between attitudes and practice score (r = 0.328, p < 0.01) with the regression, y = 0.67∗x + 5.81. In this regard, a regular basis training on basics of food-safety and cotemporary education on food-safety at initial stage of education could be imposed to improve the KAP on food-safety.