Hygienic and Sanitary Practices of Street Food Vendors in the City of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Street food vending is one of means of income generation in most of developing countries. A total of 140 street food vendors in two sub-cities were investigated from September 2014 to March 2015. The aim of this study is to investigate the hygiene of street vendors and sanitary conditions of vending sites on the streets of Addis Ababa. A structured questionnaire, interviews and extensive observation were used in the study. Most of street vendors (78.6%) were women. The majority of the vendors (68.5%) had either primary or no education. Among the vendors 88.6% didn’t have apron and 95% were not covered their hair during cooking process. In the two sub-cities, vendors had access to tap water at less than five minute walk. Jerry cans were commonly used for water storage. 35% of street food vendors were changed the cleaned utensil water when only it is dirty. Largest number of street vendors (90.7%) was used recycled paper to serve the consumers. All the vendors (100%) handled money with bare hands while serving food.  All of the vendors had no health certificate from authorized dignitary. 78.6% of the vendors prepared their food along the road side. Although street vended food is a means of income generation at the household level but the way food prepare and sold is in unsanitary environment. Awareness creation plays a key role for food safety and handling so that the concerned bodies should commit for providing food safety training to street vendors.

Keywords: street food vendors, health certificate, unsanitary environment, food safety