Rapid Food Hygiene Inspection Tool (RFHiT) to assess hygiene conformance index (CI) of street food vendors

A Scoping Review of Studies Evaluating the Healthiness of Street Food Vendors

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

This scoping review investigates the available tools for monitoring the healthiness of the food sold at street food outlets globally.

RECENT FINDINGS

Several tools were identified that have been used to evaluate the healthiness of street food outlets; however, these tools are not applicable globally, do not provide simple measures for evaluating the healthiness of foods sold, and generally have not been used across more than one study. The development of a comprehensive tool for measuring the healthiness of the street food environment that can be used across different jurisdictions and with different levels of resourcing is essential in order to understand the current street food environment and how it changes over time. As a major source of food in low- and middle-income countries globally, the street food environment is important to understand in order to know how it might help address the growing burden of diet-related diseases.

Food safety knowledge, attitude and practices of street food vendors and associated factors in Mekelle city, Northern Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the street food vendors' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding food safety as well as the associated factors that may affect those practices in Mekelle City, Northern Ethiopia. A community-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2020 to August 2020 using a quantitative data collection method on a total of 185 street food vendors. The data was collected through face-to-face interviews via administered pre-tested structured questionnaire and an observational checklist. To determine the predictor variables linked to a high level of food safety practice, a multivariable logistic regression analysis with odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals was utilized. In this study, the majority-117(65%), 146(81.1%), and 106(58.9%)-had a good level of knowledge, a positive attitude, and a good level of practice regarding food safety, respectively. A Multivariable analysis result revealed that the street food vendors age (AOR: 0.33, 95% CI: 0.14-0.77), monthly income (AOR: 5.2, 95% CI: 1.42-18.9), educational status (AOR: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.009-0.623), food vending experience (AOR: 0.54, 95% CI: 0.22-1.34), food safety training (AOR: 0.490, 95% CI: 0.317-0.757), food safety knowledge (AOR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.43-2.48) and food safety attitude (AOR: 1.22, 95% CI: 0.47-3.13) were found to be significantly associated with food safety practice. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that street food vendors had high levels of knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding food safety and hygiene, and that these practices were significantly associated with sex, monthly income, educational status, food vending experience, and food safety training. Therefore, all street food vendors in the study area should receive efficient and ongoing training on food safety practices, and additional research utilizing mixed methodologies (both quantitative and qualitative approaches) would be needed to reach more thorough results and corroborate our findings.

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

This research sought to evaluate the food safety knowledge of street food vendors and the sanitary compliance status of their vending facilities, Zululand District, South Africa. Data collection was done in a face to face interview with respondents in a cross-sectional survey research design. Data was collected from 399 randomly selected street food vendors and 200 randomly selected street food vending facilities. Only a minority of the street food vendors had attended high school (47 %) and the vast majority (77 %) of them had not attended any food safety training courses. Overall, the vast majority (76 %) of the 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, this study demonstrates that most of vending facilities of street food vendors constitute a food safety risk to the consumers. This was primarily due to the possession of inadequate food safety knowledge of street food vendors, non-compliant street food vending infrastructure, and inadequate monitoring and controls by competent authorities. It is recommended that, authorities should implement the food stalls/caravan system in areas with adequate sanitation and use the licensing and permit tool to ensure control and adherence to food safety regulations and street food vendors and health inspectors should be trained on safe food handling principles and practice.

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Most of the street food vendors had not attended any food safety-training.

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Most of the street food vendors possessed inadequate food safety knowledge.

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Most of the street food vending sites are non-compliant to food safety regulations.

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There is inadequate monitoring for prevention and control actions by health authorities.

Insights into the Microbiological Safety of Wooden Cutting Boards Used for Meat Processing in Hong Kong's Wet Markets: A Focus on Food-Contact Surfaces, Cross-Contamination and the Efficacy of Traditional Hygiene Practices

Hong Kong's wet markets play a crucial role in the country's supply of safe, fresh meat to satisfy the dietary needs of its population. Whilst food safety regulations have been introduced over the past few years to maintain the microbial safety of foods sold from these wet markets, it remains unclear whether the hygiene maintenance that is performed on the wooden cutting boards used for meat-processing is effective. In fact, hygiene maintenance may often be overlooked, and hygiene standards may be insufficient. If so, this may lead to the spread of harmful pathogens through cross-contamination, thereby causing severe risks to public health. The aim of this study was to determine the level of microbial transfer between wooden cutting boards and swine meat of various qualities, using 16S metagenomic sequencing, strain identification and biofilm screening of isolated strains. The results established that: (a) the traditional hygiene practices used for cleaning wooden cutting boards in Hong Kong's wet markets expose the surfaces to potentially harmful microorganisms; (b) the processing of microbially contaminated meat on cutting boards cleaned using traditional practices leads to cross-contamination; and (c) several potentially pathogenic microorganisms found on the cutting boards have good biofilm-forming abilities. These results reinforce the need to review the traditional methods used to clean wooden cutting boards after the processing of raw meat in Hong Kong' wet markets so as to prevent cross-contamination events. The establishment of proper hygiene protocols may reduce the spread of disease-causing microorganisms (including antibiotic-resistant microorganisms) in food-processing environments.