Street food vending
is a common feature of most cities and towns in developing countries, Aside
provision of ready-made instant meals at relatively inexpensive prices, teeming
urban dwellers are attached to street foods because of its gustatory attributes.
Street food vending makes up the significant proportion of informal sector of
the economy of most developing countries. Street foods contribute to a
significant number of food poisonings due to paucity of data deficiencies in
knowledge about important parameters in the food chain and host pathogen
interactions. Foodborne bacterial pathogens commonly detected in street vended
foods are Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella
spp. People who patronize street food, have been reported to suffer from food
borne diseases like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever and food poisoning.
Factors that consider safety implications of vended food are the vending
location, food handling, waste disposal, quality of raw materials, utensils and
equipment’s used. The numerous advantages offered by street vended foods to
food nutrition and security, however, needs to be considered alongside several
food safety issues as foods prepared and exposed for sale may become
contaminated by pathogenic micro-organisms as well as hazardous chemicals. Chemical hazards have often been ignored in street
vended foods, possibly because they rarely cause acute clinical illnesses which
can explain the limited toxicological data currently available on the same. The
benefit and contribution of street food trade to the economies of developing
countries calls for ways to mitigate the hazards in its consumption and
safeguard the health of the consuming population. To assure street food safety
and quality, and protect consumers against unsafe foods, the management of the
main risk factors associated with street foods should be strengthened and
effective preventive measures at an appropriate stage need to be taken.
Essentially, food safety issues are everyone’s responsibility, which means to
ensure hazard free food, all necessary measures, must be taken along the entire
food chain, from farm-to-fork. An important step towards reducing the risks of
foodborne illnesses particularly those originating from pathogenic microorganisms
from street foods would be controlling the steps in food preparation and sale
that may contribute to the contamination, growth and survival of the microbes
responsible for foodborne diseases.
Ugochukwu, N (2019). Food safety implications of vended food in nigeria. Afribary.com: Retrieved January 19, 2021, from https://afribary.com/works/food-safety-implications-of-vended-food-in-nigeria
Nwaigwe, Ugochukwu. "Food safety implications of vended food in nigeria" Afribary.com. Afribary.com, 05 Oct. 2019, https://afribary.com/works/food-safety-implications-of-vended-food-in-nigeria . Accessed 19 Jan. 2021.
Nwaigwe, Ugochukwu. "Food safety implications of vended food in nigeria". Afribary.com, Afribary.com, 05 Oct. 2019. Web. 19 Jan. 2021. < https://afribary.com/works/food-safety-implications-of-vended-food-in-nigeria >.
Nwaigwe, Ugochukwu. "Food safety implications of vended food in nigeria" Afribary.com (2019). Accessed January 19, 2021. https://afribary.com/works/food-safety-implications-of-vended-food-in-nigeria