KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES OF STREET FOOD VENDORS TOWARDS FOOD HYGIENE PRACTICES: A STUDY AT ABOSSEY OKAI

Abstract

These past decades have witnessed the emergence of the trend of eating away from home. Many consumers eat out in restaurants, canteens, fast food outlets and from street food vendors due to change of lifestyles and urbanization. However, the high number of people eating out has led to the emergence of food -borne illnesses arising from unhygienic preparation practices. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices towards food and personal hygiene among street food handlers Abossey Okai. The researchers adopted a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional design. A convenient sampling technique was adopted to select 100 street food vendors at Abossy Okai.. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS version 21). The findings of the study revealed that, majority 80 (80%) of the respondents had heard of food borne diseases. Furthermore, all 100 (100%) of the respondents had no certification for selling food while majority 78(78%) of the respondents did not practice hand washing with soap regularly. Also, majority 52(52%) of the respondents hardly check for ingredients expiry date before food preparation. Recommendation: The sanitary inspectors should embark on regularly monitory and inspections of food venders for certification and where possible certify those that are eligible to sell. Also, since majority of food venders in this study finding do not check for ingredient expiry dates, effort should be made to recruit and certify only venders who could read and write