Factors Affecting Street Food Vendors’ Safety Procedures and Their Awareness of the Health Risks to Customers

Abstract

Background: Food and beverages that are prepared and sold by sellers on places like the streets. Street food sellinghas become a booming business in developing countries like Bangladesh. This study aimed to find out the food safetypractices of street food vendors and their knowledge regarding the health hazards of the consumers in selected areas in Dhaka city. Method: This was a cross-sectional study to assess the level of food safety practices among the street foodvendors and their knowledge regarding health hazards of the consumers in selected areas in Dhaka city. Result: Themean age of the respondents was 30.85 years. Almost 94% of the respondents were male. Among all the respondents 37.2% completed secondary educational level. 73.7% of respondents were working for more than 20 years. Almost78.9% of respondents had a monthly income between 10001 to 30000 BDT. Almost respondents 65.4% were married.Almost 50.7% half of respondents had the habit of taking paan (Betel Leaf), bidi (a type of cheap cigarette madeof unprocessed tobacco wrapped in leaves)/cigarette, gul (remains of tobacco cake after it has been smoked). 96%of respondents had average safety practices. 72.0% of respondents had good knowledge about health hazards. Theassociation between educational qualification, income, personal habits and knowledge regarding health hazards issignificant. The association between knowledge regarding health hazards and food safety practices of the consumersis found significant. Conclusion: It is “easy to enter” businesses in developing nations like Bangladesh, where theunemployment rate is relatively high. This study of street food sellers in a few different parts of Dhaka city revealedthat the vendors have an average safety practice and good knowledge about potential health risks. The result of thestudy sets the stage for further investigations into food safety and knowledge about potential health risks.