Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

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Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

This study investigated the knowledge and practice of food hygiene among food vendors in Public Primary Schools in Nsukka Education Zone. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised teachers and food vendors from selected public primary schools. The sample size for the study was 548 respondents. Structured interview schedule and questionnaire were used as the instruments for data collection. The instrument was face-validated by experts and Cronbach Alpha method used in computing the reliability estimates. Four research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. Mean and standard deviations were used to analyze the research questions while t-test was applied in testing the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

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The following findings were made: Food hygiene practices needed by food vendors include: keeping kitchen areas clean, using clean water in cleaning utensils, buying fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables without bruises among others. Personal hygiene practices needed by food vendors include: bathing on regular basis, wearing apron and cap regularly washing hand with clean water and soap after toilet, using clean towel among others. Environmental hygiene practices needed by food vendors include: not allowing people urinate around the selling premises, having a standard waste bin, covering waste bin always etc. Strategies needed to enhance the hygiene practices of food vendors include: setting up food committee in public primary schools, the food committee should inspect the food before they are sold to children, food vendors should undergo medical checkup before permitted to sell in schools etc. The researcher in general recommended that government, non-governmental bodies, head teachers, teachers, health workers and food vendors should collaborate to contribute in ensuring that appropriate food hygiene practices are maintained in the society for the benefit of all.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

Food vendors play a critical food safety role in the “farm to plate” continuum that is necessary for the prevention and control of food borne diseases and therefore, any lack of its understanding by the food vendors poses a serious challenge to food safety. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and hygienic practices of food vendors in Owerri town of Imo State, Nigeria. Methods: The study was a Cross-Sectional descriptive design that used a proportionate convenience sampling technique to select 200 food vendors from the three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Owerri town. Data were collected using a pretested semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were done with frequencies and summary statistics. Chi square statistics were computed to determine significant relationships and p value was set at 0.05 significant level. Results: While a majority of the respondents had a good level of knowledge (81%) and positive attitude (71%) about food hygiene, only 37% of the respondents had a good level of hygienic practice. It was revealed that 32% and 46% of the respondents received training on food hygiene and environmental health worker inspection respectively. It was also revealed that, there were statistically significant relationships between knowledge (p = 0.001), attitude (p = 0.000), formal training on food hygiene (p = 0.000) and the level of food hygienic practices. Conclusion: The public health management of food vending services should involve the development of strategies that will equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide vending services in a hygienic and safe manner.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

The World health theme for 2015 was “Food Safety” and the slogan was “Farm to Plate, make Food Safe” [1] . This highlights the importance that the World Health Organization places on the need to globally address in a coordinated manner, the potential threats posed by unsafe food which is a consequence of the breakdown of food hygiene with the subsequent risk of the emergence of food borne illnesses along the pathway of the entire food supply chain, of which the food vendor is a critical component.Food borne diseases are an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide with significant public health impact. The global burden of food borne diseases in 2010 was 33 million Healthy life years lost (DALY) with about 600 million food borne illnesses and 420,000 deaths, of which food borne diarrhoeal diseases, the most frequent cause of food borne illnesses contributed about 230,000 deaths [2] [3] . The burden of foodborne diseases is borne by individuals of all ages, particularly children under the age of 5 years who constitute about 40% of the global burden and also by individuals living in low-income regions. With considerable regional differences in the global burden of food borne diseases, Africa stands out, as having the highest burden per population of food borne diseases [2] [3] .In Sub-Saharan Africa especially Nigeria, despite the efforts of Government through its National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), to improve the safety of food supply, food safety still remains a major issue that has been exacerbated by the peoples’ ignorance of food hygiene, Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay Government’s uncoordinated approach to food safety control and the poor enforcement of food safety legislation and regulations [4] . In addition, climate change resulting in temperature changes has been predicted to influence the risks associated with food production, storage and distribution and therefore has placed greater responsibility on food vendors to ensure the safety of food that they prepare for public consumption [3] .Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease, diarrhoea and malnutrition which significantly impedes public health and socioeconomic development. The number of people buying and consuming food prepared in public places has increased as a result of population migration, changes in consumer demand and behaviour with urban dwellers needing cheaper foods in the face of harsh economic realities and as a consequence, the risk of food borne illnesses is more prevalent due to challenges in food safety especially in regions where adequate resources have not been allocated for food safety control and intervention efforts [3] .Food can become contaminated at any point of production and distribution along the farm to plate continuum and as a result, food safety control is a responsibility shared by all components in the food supply chain; so with each component operating responsibly, the supply of safe food to the consumer is supposed to be guaranteed. But unfortunately, a large proportion of food borne diseases are caused by improperly prepared and mishandled food by food vendors and also food handlers at home. The challenge in food safety is that these food handlers lack understanding of their roles in ensuring proper personal and environmental hygiene accompanied with the basic food hygienic practices when they buy, prepare and sell food [3] .The role of the food handlers especially the food vendors in effectively reducing the risk of food borne diseases is critically important as they are in direct contact with the consumers and also, they are the least challenging in terms of implementing food safety control measures. So assessing the knowledge, attitude and practices of food vendors will enable the development of coordinated, effective, integrated and preventive strategies in line with the WHO “Five Keys to Safer Food” with the aim of reducing the risk of contamination as they buy, prepare, store and serve food to the consumers [5] .2. Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay Methodology2.1. Study AreaThe survey was conducted in Owerri town of Imo State, Nigeria. Owerri town is bordered to the east by Otamiri River and to the south by Nworie River and it comprises of three Local Government Areas; Owerri Municipal, Owerri North and Owerri West which are part of the 27 Local Governments that make up Imo State. Imo State is in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, within longitude 5˚29’06″N and latitude 7˚02’06″E occupying an area between the lower river Niger and the upper and middle Imo River [6] . It had a total population of 3.93 million (2.03 million males and 1.9 million females) by 2006 census with an expected population in 2013 of 4.95 million based on an annual growth rate of 3.2% between 2006 and 2013 [7] . The State occupies an area of 5289.49 square kilometres with a population density of about 707.9 per square kilometre [6] .2.2. Study PopulationThe study population comprise of food vendors i.e. major hotels, school and hospital cafeterias, fast food restaurants, food kiosks, roadside food sellers and food hawkers.2.3. Sample Size EstimationThe minimum sample size required was estimated using Cochran formula [8] .n = Z2pq/d2when n = minimum sample size required; Z = Standard normal deviate corresponding to the probability of type I error; p = proportion of food vendors estimated to have a certain knowledge, attitude and practice, which is set at 50%; q = 1 ? p; d = tolerable error of margin set at 0.05. The minimum required sample size (n) calculated was 384. The population (N) of the food vendors in Owerri was established to be 300, using the finite population correction factor [9] ;The adjusted sample size (n0) = n × N/n + (N − 1).The adjusted sample size (n0) for this study was 169 but the researchers increased the sample size to 200 participants to accommodate non-response.2.4. Study Design and Sampling TechniqueThe study was a cross sectional descriptive design that used a proportionate convenience sampling technique to select 200 food vendors from the three Local Government Areas (LGAs). The established population (N) of 300 food vendors were located in the three LGAs as follows; Owerri Municipal―156 (52%), Owerri North―69 (23%) and Owerri West―75 (25%). These proportions were applied to the study sample size of 200 and the proportionate number of food vendors selected from each LGA were identified as follows; Owerri Municipal- 104, Owerri North―46 and Owerri West―50. Subsequently, the food vendors were enrolled as participants based on convenience, accessibility, proximity and consent until the proportionate numbers for the respective LGAs were attained.2.5. Inclusion/Exclusion CriteriaFor each food vendor, the principal individual directly involved in the preparation of food was selected and there was no exclusion criteria applied.2.6. Data Collection and AnalysisData was collected from two hundred pretested semi structured interviewer- administered questionnaires with an observational checklist. The questionnaire comprise of 4 sections; section one, Sociodemographic Characteristics, section two, Knowledge of food hygiene, section three, Attitude towards food hygiene and section four, Practice and Training on food hygiene. The observational checklist comprise of 2 sections; Personal hygiene and Environmental hygiene. Medical students were recruited for the distribution and collection of the questionnaires.The level of knowledge of food hygiene was determined by scoring the questions that assessed knowledge. Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay For a single response question, a correct answer was scored 5; a false answer was scored 0. For a multiple response question, each correct answer was scored 5 and up to a maximum of 4 correct answers, a subtotal score of 20 was allocated and for a false answer, 0 was allocated. The total maximum score for all the correct answers for assessing the level knowledge was 35. The level of attitude towards food hygiene was determined by scoring questions that connote an appropriate attitude. For an appropriate attitude, a score of 5 was allocated and for an inappropriate attitude a score of 0 was allocated. The total maximum score for all the appropriate attitudinal response for assessing the level of attitude was 25. The level of practice of food hygiene was determined by scoring questions that assessed practice. For an appropriate practice a score of 5 was allocated and for an inappropriate practice, a score of 0 was allocated. The total maximum score for all the appropriate practices was 25. The aggregate score for each respondent according to the level of knowledge, attitude and practice was translated to a percentage and assessed against a scale of 0% – 49% for poor, 50% – 69% for fair and 70% or more as good. Data was cleaned, validated manually and analysed using Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS- IBM) version 22. Descriptive statistics (frequency tables and summary indices) were generated. Chi Square was used to test association between categorical variables with the p value set at 0.05 significant level.2.7. Ethical ConsiderationsEthical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Imo State University Teaching Hospital Orlu and verbal consents were given by the respondents. All authors hereby declare that the study has therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

The need of ready to eat food has increased, especially in urban population. The previous finding showed that urban households spend almost 15-50 percent of their food money on street food vendors. Based on the data survey conducted by FAO, the consumer of street food included children and students, workers, and housewives (Khairuzzaman, Chowdhury, Zaman, Al Mamun, & Bari, 2014). The changing socialisation and modern lifestyle among people mean they may a less time to prepare their meals, and it has created a higher demand to eat outside the home. In many countries, the study showed that workers, as well as students, have their meal from street vendors (Winarno & Allain, 1991). The demands on ready to eat food and low-cost food have been the most priority things that attract consumers. The prior study confirmed this phenomenon that the demand for ready to eat food without spending a lot of time, cost, fuel, and transportation also less prepared on cooking equipment are the most reasonable points of customers select with street foods (Winarno & Allain, 1991).Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

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Food street business can be categorized as an informal sector unit. The informal sector defined as “units engaged in the production of goods or services with the primary objective of generating employment and incomes to the persons concerned that typically work at a low level of organization with little or no division of labour and capital as factors of production and on a small scale” (Glsossary, 2003). The numbers of street food business were increased in many developing countries (Draper, 1996) and influenced by urban population growth (Winarno & Allain, 1991). The earning prospect and higher consumer demand for food attracted people to run a street food business. In developing countries, creating a business on street food seen as an opportunity for people to gain new income easily because it not need experience, less investment money to set up and no required special training. The study in Ghana stated that women were the higher number of employment, and relatively simple skills and low education level also confirmed the poor resources on food handling practice in developing country (Donkor, Kayang, Quaye, & Akyeh, 2009). The previous study that conducted in one of Indonesia cities, Bogor, showed that annual sales of street foods amount to US$67 million (Winarno & Allain, 1991). In 1983, Bogor as one of the urban cities, with a population of 250 000, has 17,754 street food vendors, one vendor for 14 inhabitants. Approximately 26 percent of workers active in the informal sector in Bogor city were directly employed as street food vendors (Tinker, 1997). This conditions supported by the latest study that showed the number of street vendors in developing countries South East Asia has been increasing rapidly because of monetary crisis in 1998 (Bhowmik, 2005). Based on the data above, it can figure how many street food vendors are available in every urban city. Furthermore, sellers have variability work hours and locations (Lucan et al., 2013). The survey in Bangkok showed street foods offer financial prospects for low and middle-income people, in particular for women. This condition increased when economic recessions appear and attract people become street food vendors for having other jobs they may have. (Chung., 2010, (Hilmi & Fellows, 2011)Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

Street food defined as “foods and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors in streets and other public places for immediate consumption or consumption at a later time without further processing or preparation” (WHO, 1996). Some of ready-to-eat foods and beverages or meals prepared at home and consumed on the streets without extra preparation are known as street food (Rane, 2011). The study in Bangkok showed that poorer households cooked only once a day and bought one to two meals of ready-to-eat food from street food vendors. The households confirmed that street food was reasonably priced then cooking at home, readily available with many choices menu and no wasting time for cooking (Hilmi & Fellows, 2011). There are so many kinds of menus for sale by street food vendors which usually originate from its culture. In Indonesia, these include fried food, a variety of soup, salad with varied sauces, simple sweet cake and some other simple foods.

Selling food in the street provide an income for a lot of less education and employment opportunity. However, it also comes with arisen risk of food safety. Less hygiene practise and poor sanitation facilities caused several risks on the consumer. In Indonesia, there are many street food vendors as food hawkers or street food sellers in the stall that sell in on the side of the road which is on pavement or pedestrian side. The previous study confirmed that food safety and quality of street food have grown to be an essential issue, especially for food microbiological contamination and its preparation abuse (Rane, 2011). Some of the microorganism is pathogenic that harmful for human health. Based on World Health Organization, the major issue for human health problems regards foodborne illness were Salmonella, Escherichia Coli, Campylobacter, Listeria and Cholera (WHO, 2007). The several common pathogens that remain in food product showed the poor of hygiene practice during the food preparation. The knowledge, attitude and practise of food handler influence the potential risk for food hygiene practice on premises. Therefore, street foods are supposed to be a major public health risk (Alimi, 2016; Bhowmik, 2005).Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

In Indonesia, Food & Drug Agency (FDA) namely Badan Pengawasan Obat dan Makanan (BPOM) supported by local authority do share responsibilities for conducting food safety monitoring program. FDA role based on the law and Ministry of Health (MOH) regulations. In 2015, 61 outbreaks cases remained in 34 provinces of Indonesia. From the data monitoring from 2012 to 2014, the percentage of disallowed contaminant in street food remained constant, approximately about 20%. The data also showed that microbiology contamination shared a higher proportion and increased (from 60% to nearly 80 %) rather than harmful chemical use and food additive abuse (FDA, 2015). This circumstance should be investigated what is the root cause of the poor condition. Knowledge, attitude and practise of food handlers played crucial role in implementing basic food hygiene especially microbiology contamination. This study aimed for observing sociodemographic and exploring knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of basic food hygiene on food street vendors which can be used as a baseline evidence for further study in public health and food safety regards to street food vendor issues. The results of this study may describe the KAP level of food handlers’ and identified the proper approach intervention for reducing food borne illness.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

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Material and Method
2.1 Study population

A total of 272 street food vendors participated in the study. The cross sectional study with opportunistic approach conducted in one sub district in Bandung city. The pilot project has been surveyed 20 respondents of 4 sub-districts for analysing the power of sample and also improved the questionnaire. The statistic confirmed about 252 food street vendors required as a minimal number one district for representative sampling.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

2.2 Study Instrument and Data Collection

Face to face interview was conducted using socio-demographic and KAP questionnaire. Socio-demographic questionnaire as a complementary questionnaire consists of factors predicted that influence on respondent’s (food street vendors) knowledge, attitude and practice on food safety and hygiene which are constructed based on literature such as age, sex, marital status, education level, number of employment, employee type (self-employer/ employee), how long they have been a seller and also their profit per day.

Food premises information showed the premises condition and type of food that sale, food preparation, food packaging material, type of facilities (i.e., stall, mobile street vendors, tent, stand, or handed), and also hour length of sale.

The knowledge questionnaire, consists of 10 questions with maximal score 10 in total containing multiple choices questions, was given to respondent for reviewing their awareness on food hygiene. The questions concerning knowledge about food hygiene from storage, cleanness, preparation and personal hygiene linked to transmission of microorganisms, and respondents were asked to choose one answer from among three options.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

The questions of attitude consist of 10 questions, with maximal score 50 containing statement agreements. The answer options for these question used Likert scales ranging from 1 (very disagree) to 5 (very agree) to show a subjective response on their agreement on food hygiene implementation. The scores for attitude were similar with the range from 1-5, the higher score represents better manner on food hygiene.

The scores for practice on food hygiene were calculated from 56 questions based on an audit that observed on premises. The appearance of reducing cross contamination on food handlers/vendors was noted e.g. personal hygiene, food storage, pest control and utensil/ equipment. The source of water supply was investigated also the ice (whether commercially bought or self-made). The presence of food exterior facilities and sanitary utilities was determined e.g. availability of toilets, adequate washing facilities, sink, surface, waste, and food packaging. The availability of cold storage/refrigeration storage was also checked.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

2.3 Statistical Analysis

The data was analyzed by a statistical computer program (SPSS version 20). The descriptive t-test analysis was used for analyzing sociodemographic data. The knowledge, attitude and practice of food handlers were analyzed by using frequency, mean and standard deviation. Food safety knowledge scores for the respondents were, calculated based on the multiple choice answer for each question, only for the items of correct answers was assigned a score: +1 and 0 in the case of don’t know/wrong option. For ten attitude questions calculated from the Likert scale point 1-5, for question number 2, 6 and 9, the reversible point used to calculate the point because it was a negative question.

The answers classified as +1 point when the auditor/interview found out the correct evidence on respondent’s premises and 0 points when they failed to find it. However, not available marked for respondents who did not have the correlation item with the type of food. The total percent score for the respondents’ attitude then calculated by sum up all score in total.Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

Food street business can be categorized as an informal sector unit. The informal sector defined as “units engaged in the production of goods or services with the primary objective of generating employment and incomes to the persons concerned that typically work at a low level of organization with little or no division of labour and capital as factors of production and on a small scale” (Glsossary, 2003). The numbers of street food business were increased in many developing countries (Draper, 1996) and influenced by urban population growth (Winarno & Allain, 1991). The earning prospect and higher consumer demand for food attracted people to run a street food business. In developing countries, creating a business on street food seen as an opportunity for people to gain new income easily because it not need experience, less investment money to set up and no required special training. Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay The study in Ghana stated that women were the higher number of employment, and relatively simple skills and low education level also confirmed the poor resources on food handling practice in developing country (Donkor, Kayang, Quaye, & Akyeh, 2009). The previous study that conducted in one of Indonesia cities, Bogor, showed that annual sales of street foods amount to US$67 million (Winarno & Allain, 1991). In 1983, Bogor as one of the urban cities, with a population of 250 000, has 17,754 street food vendors, one vendor for 14 inhabitants. Approximately 26 percent of workers active in the informal sector in Bogor city were directly employed as street food vendors (Tinker, 1997). This conditions supported by the latest study that showed the number of street vendors in developing countries South East Asia has been increasing rapidly because of monetary crisis in 1998 (Bhowmik, 2005). Based on the data above, it can figure how many street food vendors are available in every urban city. Furthermore, sellers have variability work hours and locations (Lucan et al., 2013). The survey in Bangkok showed street foods offer financial prospects for low and middle-income people, in particular for women. This condition increased when economic recessions appear and attract people become street food vendors for having other jobs they may have. (Chung., 2010, (Hilmi & Fellows, 2011)

Material and Method
2.1 Study population

2.2 Study Instrument and Data Collection

2.3 Statistical Analysis

The answers classified as +1 point when the auditor/interview found out the correct evidence on respondent’s premises and 0 points when they failed to find it. However, not available marked for respondents who did not have the correlation item with the type of food. The total percent score for the respondents’ attitude then calculated by sum up all score in total. Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

Knowledge And Practice Of Food Hygiene Among Food Vendors Essay

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