Understanding the Risk Landscape: Analyzing Factors Impacting Food Vending in Nigeria

Abstract

Even in the modern era with increased awareness about foodborne illness, it still remains a serious public health issue, everywhere around the world, and food handling, preparation and service are crucial practices for food safety. The factor of cookware preparation, storage systems, and/or the versatility and level of education of food handlers are all types of food safety factors that directly or indirectly influence food safety to some degree. Properly nailing down food hygiene first entails looking closely into personal hygiene and the conduct of employees working in food businesses. The food handlers with poor personal hygiene may, in close proximity to the food, be carriers of intestinal helminths, protozoa, and enteropathogenic bacteria. This is when the hands of the handlers can carry excreta from their feces, and they spread it into food with their fingers, thereby leading to infections in the customers. This study assessed the most influential risk factors causing food vendor's illness, identifies several of them, like the groceries, raw food and quality; food prepared and handled in the streets; transportation; absence of regulations involving time and specific holding temperature; and the environment's cleanliness. Nevertheless, the research work came to reveal that various aspects of street food safety are persistently being taken into much account in consuming what belongs to dissimilar socio-economic grouping. Therefore, since the economic benefits of street food trading are incalculable, it is very critical that authorities strengthened and implemented the policies/ regulations in order to ensure food safety. Keywords: Foodborne illnesses, Food safety, Food handling, Food vendors, Street food