A study of the hygiene and safety of foods sold by street food vendors operating within the Warwick triangle of Durban

Abstract

It is often assumed that street food is unsafe because of the unsanitary environment that it is prepared and sold in. The aim of this study is to investigate the food handling practices and food premises of vendors and to determine the microbial safety of food sold within the study area. In carrying out the aim of this study, the researcher studied the food handling practice and operation of food vendors. In order to determine the safety of foods, microbiological tests were conducted to determine the microbial load, as well as the presence and acceptable limits of food pathogens. Quantitative data were collected by the administration of a questionnaire, observation checklist and microbiological testing. All vendors situated in the study area participated in the response of the questionnaire and checklist, but only 26 full meals were collected and tested separately for microbial analysis as a mean of meat and salad. Questionnaires were used to determine the nature of operation and food samples were tested to determine the microbiological safety of foods. All food samples were collected aseptically, stored in cooler boxes and transported to the Durban University of Technology where microbiological tests were conducted. Quantitative microbial analysis was conducted on Salmonella spp., E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes, and quantitative analysis was conducted on total plate count, aerobic and nonaerobic spore formers and Staphylococcus aureus. Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 24.0 was used to analyse the generated data to determine the mean and percentages of the results in all categories. The results of this study indicate that the street food vendors within the Warwick Triangle have poor food safety knowledge and poor food handling practices which are evident in the microbial quality of the food sold. These results provided the municipality with adequate reasons to increase their efforts at improving the knowledge of food handlers within the municipality and thus increase the safety of street foods sold.