Food safety practices and knowledge of street chicken vendors in Kampala urban and peri-urban areas.

Abstract

Street chicken vending offers consumers a convenient and affordable food option, making it a popular choice for quick meals. However, it can raise public health concerns arising from the food safety practices of the chicken vendors. This study therefore aimed at assessing the food safety practices and knowledge of street chicken vendors in Kampala urban and peri-urban areas. Structured questionnaires were administered to 81 street chicken vendors who were randomly selected using either snowball or through transect walk sampling procedures. The results of this study revealed that majority of vendors were aged between 20 and 29 years (46.6%). While the sex of the vendors was evenly distributed between males (50.6%) and females (49.4%), nearly two thirds (67.6%) had completed ordinarily level education, 64.2% were married, 95.1% operated the business as sole proprietors, and 98.8% used stalls to prepare and sell the meat. Broilers were the predominant chicken type sold (92.6%), which is sourced mainly from markets (56.8%) and slaughterhouses (35.8%). It is worthy noting that hygiene practices in the premises of the business raised concerns. According to the current study, few vendors practiced strict hand-washing (2.5%) and and sanitized (2.5%) while none wore gloves (0%). In addition, it was observed that there was inadequate protection of prepared meat from environmental factors such as dust, sunlight and fumes from vehicles and disease vectors like houseflies, as well. Vendors reported to have had limited food safety training sessions (4.9%) despite of high awareness of food-borne diseases and food contaminants (97.5%). Moreover, the insufficient knowledge on food safety that is not regularly practiced explains the weak correlation between the socio-demographic factors and chicken handling practices or knowledge of the vendors in regard to food safety. Thus, the study highlights the need to address food safety practices and knowledge of street chicken vendors. There is a need to increase awareness of street food regulations, implement strict regulations, monitor as well as promote education in food safety so as to curb the constraints in street vending business.