The food safety knowledge of street food vendors and the sanitary conditions of their street food vending environment, Zululand District, South Africa

Abstract

Street-vended foods are convenient and cheap meals, but their contamination can lead to foodborne illness. This study aimed to evaluate food safety knowledge of street food vendors in Ulundi and AbaQulusi local municipalities of Zululand District, South Africa and compliance of their street food vending environment to sanitary requirements. A cross sectional survey design was utilised to gather data from 400 street food vendors using interviews. A piloted checklist was used to collect data on the sanitary characteristics from 200 randomly selected street food vending facilities. Most of the street food vendors were black (99%), females (73%), and above 35 years (55%). Only the minority of street food vendors had attended a high school (47%) and the vast majority (77%) of them had not attended any food safety training course. The majority (64.7%) of respondents knew that food should not be handled when they have diarrhoea, even if their hands were washed regularly, neither when they have flu, colds, cough, or catarrh. The minority (43%) of street food vendors knew that the use of separate cutting boards for meat and salad, and washing them between uses are the safest ways to avoid cross-contamination. The majority (79.4%) of street food vendors were aware that microorganisms could cause foodborne diseases that may lead to death. The vast majority (76%) of street food vendors had low food safety knowledge and only 14% of the street food vending sites had high compliance with sanitary conditions. In conclusion, most street food vendors possessed inadequate food safety knowledge in key food safety parameters and most of the street food vending facilities were noncompliant. Furthermore, most of them operate under poor sanitary conditions. Street food vendors should be provided with compliant waste disposal and standard kitchen facilities with water resources to ensure hygienic preparation and serving of food.