Food Safety and Hyienic Practices of Street Food Essay

DISCUSSION The street food industry plays an important role in developing countries in meeting the food demands of the urban dwellers. Street foods feed millions of people daily with a wide variety of foods that are relatively cheap and easily accessible (Latham, 1997). However there are significant reports of health problems that have been associated with these street foods(Muleta and Ashenafi (2001); Ashenafi (1995); El-Sherbeeny et al (1985); Abdussalam and Kaferstein, (1993); Mensah et al (2002) and Omemu and Aderoju (2008). Street foods are sources of nutrition for many low-income groups at affordable prices in large urban areas.Nevertheless, there are also several health hazards associated with them. These foods could be main vehicle for transmission of severe and fatal diseases that could be life threatening. Contamination of these foods could result from pre or post cooking contamination from the food handlers. Street food vendors are often unlicensed, untrained in food safety, food hygiene and sanitation, and work under crude unsanitary conditions (FAO 1990). Muinde and Kuria (2005) in their study in Nairobi, Kenya found that over thirty-five percent of the vendors belonged to the age category of 20-25 years. Sixty percent of the vendors were male while 40% were female. Sixty-two percent of the vendors interviewed had primary education and below, 36.3% had secondary education while only 1.3% had college education. In our study we found women made up 66.67% of the vendors while males made up 33.33% who fell into the average age group of 31-40 years with mean age of 41.23 years. This is in contrast with their findings. In Accra the street food trade was conducted by children aged >10 years and by women aged.