Abstract
The study was conducted in the Grassy Park area, which is a suburb of the City of Cape Town in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Due to the nature of its location, Grassy Park is considered a favourable area for street food vendors to trade, as many residents from other suburbs pass through this area when commuting to and from work. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) define street food as food that is prepared, ready for consumption and sold in streets or public places. Street vended food makes up 70% of urban food. Inadequate food preparation and handling practices together with unhygienic conditions have been associated with street vended and pose a risk to food contamination, thus increasing the risk of foodborne illnesses.
This study sought to evaluate the food safety knowledge and practices of informal street food vendors, within the Grassy Park Suburb, Cape Town. The study was a quantitative cross-sectional descriptive study. The population consisted of male and female street vendors, aged 21 years and older within the study area. The target population size was 200 with a 95% confidence interval. The sample size calculated was 132 using EPINFO 7 however 108 data extraction forms (82%) were completed. This was possibly due to an overestimate of sample size. Data was collected using close-ended questionnaires and observational checklists using convenience sampling. Limitations of the study included potential vendors not willing to participate due to feeling that they may be reported to authorities as they do not have a valid Certificate of Acceptability. A few participants started the interview but did not want to continue due as they did not want to disclose education level and did not want researcher to observe practices. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software. Descriptive analysis, Pearson’s chi-square test and Correlation Analysis were conducted.
Results revealed that participants had a high level of knowledge on food safety with 61% understanding the meaning of food safety and 89% having knowledge on food poisoning. This is despite lacking formal food safety training. Interestingly, 97% of participants understand the importance of hand washing and cleaning & sanitizing. Low number of vendors (25%) had a valid certificate of acceptability however 97% of vendors had no dirt accumulation and 94% of vendors having clean equipment/utensils. Inadequate food handling and storage practices was observed mainly due to poor infrastructure, i.e. lack of potable water (44%) and temperature control storage facilities (36%). There was no correlation between Food Safety Practices and socio-demographics, knowledge scores and compliance scores meaning the food safety practices scores were not influenced by these variables.
Recommendations include sponsorship for street food vendors to attend food safety programmes, intensifying monitoring of street food vendor practices by health authorities and implementing continuous awareness on food safety and hygiene practices.