Assessment of sanitation and hygiene practices in butcheries and meat vendor stalls in Rubaga Division Kampala District

Abstract

Foodborne diseases have shown an exponential rise especially in developing countries. This has been attributed to negligence to observe food hygiene by food handlers along the food chain. This study assessed the sanitation and hygiene practices in butcheries and meat street vendor stalls in Rubaga division Kampala district. A qualitative cross-sectional survey was carried out among 70 meat street vendors and 70 butcheries selected in Rubaga division, Kampala district. All the 13 parishes where selected and a multistage sampling strategy was used to select the butcheries per parish whereas snowballing sampling method was used to select the meat street vendor stalls while targeting markets and trading centers respectively. Well-structured questionnaires and observation checklists were used to assess sanitation and hygiene practices in butcheries and street vendor stalls. The objectives of this study were to assess the sanitation and hygiene practices in butcheries and meat street vendors in Rubaga division Kampala district. Data obtained were entered into an excel sheet and analyzed using STATA version 14. Overall, both butchers and meat street vendors had poor hygiene practices. The hygiene practices revealed that 28.6% (Butchers) and 24.3% (meat street vendors) didn’t have protective equipment, 90% (Butchers) and 64.3% (meat street vendors) didn’t wear face masks among other findings. Overall, the sanitation standards for the meat street vendor stalls were poor, 77% (54/70). Majority of the meat street vendor stalls didn’t have a dust bin (81.4%) and never had a hand washing facility (88.6%) among others. On the other hand, majority of the butcheries had good sanitation standards; 79% (55/70). Majority of the butcheries had a reliable water source (81.4%), had a platform for display of meat (98.6%), and were located 50m away from the garbage pit (97.1%) among others. Therefore, there is a need for mass health education and sensitization of street meat vendors and butchers about the whole component of food hygiene and safety by the KCCA public health department to increase their knowledge levels on the subject.