Assessment of Hygienic Food Practices in Street Vended Foods
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Date
AUGUST, 2015.
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Abstract
The thriving street food vending sector in developing countries have made it imperative to ensure that food provided by this sector is safe for human ingestion. A large number of these street food vendors have knowledge on basic hygienic practices in food preparation and vending. They however, do not understand the impact of these practices on the safety and quality of the food they provide for the populace. This study therefore sought to assess the level of hygienic practices among street food vendors and also establish the relevance of education, in- service training and professional training in the delivery of safe food by street food vendors. Using a cross sectional survey method, the study was conducted in the Ho municipality of the Volta region of Ghana. Structured questionnaires, interviews and observations were used for the study involving 300 street food vendors who were randomly selected. The questionnaires, interviews and observations sought to identify the safety and hygienic practices employed by the respondents. The findings from this research indicated that, majority of the vendors are women and every vendor had at least primary education. A high percentage of them had no professional training; they however attend in-service training and workshops in their numbers. There exist no significant association between the level of formal education and most of the hygienic food practices. However there exists a significant association between most of the hygienic food practices and in-service training as most of the vendors who attend in-service training and workshops adhere to hygienic food practices. Similarly there was statistically significant relationship between professional training and most of the hygienic food practices that were studied. Per these findings, the role of in-service and professional training as well as formal education cannot be underestimated in the delivery of street foods which are safe for human consumption.
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Food Quality Management,