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Food Hygiene Practices and Associated Factors Among Street Food Vendors in Northeastern Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

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Abstract

Street foods are ready-made meals, relatively inexpensive and easily accessible for the marginal people in developing countries. However, the lack of proper hygiene among vendors and the safety of the vending site make the street food sector a serious threat to public health. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of food hygiene practice and associated factors among street food vendors in Northeastern Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study was performed among 422 street food vendors using a pre-tested structured questionnaire and an observation checklist from February 2020 to April 2020. Quantitative descriptive statistics were used to analyse the acquired data, employing frequency, percentage, and mean. The strength of association between the independent variables and food hygiene practices was assessed first using bivariate logistic regression analysis at a p-value of ≤ 0.25. Those of the fitted variables were further evaluated in the multivariate logistic regression model analysis to identify the associated factors at p-values < 0.05 and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) and adjusted odds ratio (AOR). As a result, 181(42.8%) of the street food vendors had a good level of food hygiene and safety practices. Regression analysis showed that the monthly income ≥ 2500 ETB per month (AOR = 2.6, 95% CI = 1.29, 5.21), food vendors work experience ≥ 3 years (AOR = 2.09, 95% CI = 1.06, 4.11), medical check-up of street food vendors (AOR = 2.78, 95% CI = 1.07, 7.18) and access to onsite water supply (AOR = 55.02, 95% CI = 6.60, 458.47) were significantly associated with food hygiene practices of the street vendors. The overall hygiene practice of street food vendors in the study area were poor. To improve the overall food hygiene practices, the street vendors should establish a good level of basic water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) facilities in the study area.

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Data Availability

Data will be available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the infrastructural support received from Mekelle University and Samara University in Ethiopia to carry out research collaborations to peruse this M.Sc. thesis work. Additionally, we would like to express our gratitude to Afar Regional Health Bureau and Samara-Logia city administration health office in Northeastern Ethiopia for the assistance provided during the data collection periods. The authors would like to recognize the study participants for their willingness to participate in the study.

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Author notes

  1. Ahmed Yousuf Adem and Adhena Ayaliew Werkneh contributed equally and shared first authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Samara Health Sciences College, Samara-Logiya, Ethiopia

    Ahmed Yousuf Adem

  2. Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 1871, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Adhena Ayaliew Werkneh

  3. Department of Public Health, College of Medical and Health Sciences, Samara University, Samara-Logiya, Ethiopia

    Fikerbante Yimer

  4. Department of Reproductive Health, School of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 1871, Mekelle, Ethiopia

    Molla Teferi Belew

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  1. Ahmed Yousuf Adem
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  4. Molla Teferi Belew
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Contributions

AYA generating the idea, developing the study design, collecting analyzing, interpreting the data, and drafting the manuscript. AAW is developing the study conception, supervising the study conception, the methodology, analyzing and interpreting the result, and preparing the manuscript. FY contributed in supervision of the study, while MTB have critically revised the manuscript. All authors read and finally approved the manuscript for submission in the journal.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Adhena Ayaliew Werkneh.

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Ethics Approval

The Samara University College of Medicine and Health Sciences' Ethical Review Committee (ERC) granted ethical approval for the study. Official support letters to the street food vendors were obtained from the Afar Regional Health Bureau (ARHB), and informed consent was obtained from each of the study participants. A written informed consent was obtained from the study participants after informing them of the purpose of the study and their full right not to participate at all or to terminate at any time during the data collection time.

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Adem, A.Y., Werkneh, A.A., Yimer, F. et al. Food Hygiene Practices and Associated Factors Among Street Food Vendors in Northeastern Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study. Glob Soc Welf 10, 275–283 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40609-023-00303-9

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