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Background: The continuous rise in the incidence of food borne illness has led to an increase in global concern about food hygiene practices among food handlers and vendors. Objective: To assess the food hygiene practices among food vendors in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, Nigeria. Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design involving 150 food vendors. Semistructured questionnaire including an observational section modified by Society for Family Health (SFH) Water, Hygiene and Sanitation checklist were used to elicit relevant information. Data were analyzed and presented using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviation and Chi square used to test for association between relevant variables at 0.05 level of significance. Results: Food vending business was dominated by women (90%), almost 49% were aged 30-40yrs and 66.7% had food handler certificate. The food vendors demonstrated good food hygiene practices as 99.3% wash hands before cooking and after handling raw foods. Observation of environmental and personal hygiene revealed that 54% cooked in clean environment while 80% had no food debris observed on their hands. The food vendors environmental hygiene was influenced by age (p = 0.044), level of education (p = 0.002), monthly income (p = 0.006), and refuse disposal method (p = 0.034). Conclusion: The food vendors displayed good food hygiene practices with suboptimal environmental practices. Regular environmental inspections by appropriate authorities to enforce and promote adequate environmental measure among food vendors is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The burden of food-borne diseases is becoming a global problem. The aim of this study was to assess and compare personal hygiene knowledge among street food vendors and canteen food handlers in the Kano metropolis. Methodology: An explanatory sequential mixed methods study was carried out using a structured intervieweradministered questionnaire, focus group discussion guide and observation checklist, to assess and compare personal hygiene knowledge among street food vendors and canteen food handlers in Kano metropolis, Nigeria. Quantitative data was analyzed at univariate, bivariate and multivariate levels using SPSS version 20.0 at a 5% a level of significance. Thematic analysis was used to analyze verbatim transcripts from qualitative interviews. Results: The response rates were 305/310 (98.4%) and 288/310 (92.9%) among street food vendors and canteen food handlers, respectively. The proportions of street food vendors and canteen food handlers with poor, fair and good knowledge of personal hygiene were (29.5% versus 19.8%), (51.8% versus 54.2%) and (18.7% versus 26.0%), respectively (p=0.009). There was a statistically significant association between education and knowledge of personal hygiene among street food vendors (p=0.03) and canteen food handlers (p=0.04). Though slightly better among canteen food handlers, narratives by the two groups of food handlers pointed to the general lack of awareness of basic personal hygiene which was supported by the findings from observation. Conclusion: Personal hygiene knowledge was poor among the two groups of food handlers; therefore, the Government should ensure legislation and enforcement involving training of food vendors, periodic medical examination, and issuance of fitness certificate to all food vendors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Increasing consumption of vended foods may pose a significant public health threat associated with food-borne illnesses. Context: Increasing consumption of vended foods may pose a significant public health threat associated with food borne illnesses. Aim: To assess and compare the determinants of personal hygiene practices among street food vendors and canteen food handlers in a commercial city of northwestern Nigeria. Settings and design: Using interviewer-administered questionnaire, comparative cross-sectional design was used Materials and Methods: As much as 310 (in each group) street food vendors and canteen food handlers, selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data analysis used: The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 22.0 Results: The proportion of street food vendors practicing correct personal hygiene measures were 214 (70.2%), compared with 213 (74.0%) canteen food handlers, respectively. There was a significant association between street food vendor's sex, ethnicity, educational status, hepatitis A or typhoid vaccination status, and the correct practice of personal hygiene (P < 0.05). Sex was found to be an independent predictor of personal hygiene practice (adjusted odds ratio = 4.7, 95% confidence interval = 1.3–16.7) among street food vendors with female street food vendors being five times more likely to observe correct personal hygiene practice than their male counterparts. Conclusions: Personal hygiene practice was found to be good among both street food vendors and canteen food handlers. However, there is a need for improvement if food-borne diseases are to be controlled; therefore, the government should ensure training and enforcement of all regulations to improve the personal hygiene practice thereby reducing the burden of food-borne illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Street-food vendors play an important role in the aetiology of food borne disease outbreaks. Food borne disease pathogens may be transferred by street-food vendors to food either directly or by cross contamination. This study assessed the personal hygiene among street-food vendors in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted among 109 adult street-food vendors who sell cooked food or food items by the road side or open spaces in Sabon Gari LGA. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Data was collected using observation checklist and pretested interviewer administered structured questionnaire with closed-ended questions. The data obtained was analysed using IBM SPSS statistics 20. Results: Most of the street-food vendors were within age group 35-44 years (40.4%). Most (49.5%) of the people who patronized street-food vendors were passers-by and more than half of the street-food vendors operate under a shade (50.5%). All the street-food vendors did not receive training on personal hygiene. More than half of the street-food vendors 55 (50.4%) had poor personal hygiene. Also 103 (94.5%) and 100 (91.7%) of the food vending sites has chairs/benches where customers could sit to eat and cooking spot separated from the serving area, respectively. Conclusion: Most of the street-food vendors had poor personal hygiene, however majority had a fairly good environmental sanitation status around their vending sites. Formal training on personal hygiene should be conducted among all street-food vendors in the LGA in order to improve on their personal hygiene practice for the vending of safe food to their consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on the knowledge, attitude and practice model, this study investigated the role of food handlers in adherence to hygienic-sanitary standards for food safety. Specifically, using data gathered from food handlers in restaurants, hotels, and hospitals in Nigeria, the study examined the effect of food handlers' safety knowledge on their hygienic-sanitary practices of personal hygiene, kitchen hygiene and disease control measures. We also observed the mediating role of food handlers' attitudes in the causal relationship between food safety knowledge and the hygienic-sanitary practices of food handlers. Empirical findings supported the hypothesized assumption that food safety knowledge positively impacts food handler's attitudes (β =.395, p < 0.001) and attitudes in turn significantly contribute to the adherence to hygienic-sanitary conditions for food safety. Further, other than the indirect effect of the handler's attitude on food safety knowledge and personal hygiene, food handlers' attitude partially mediate s the effect of knowledge on kitchen hygiene and disease control measure. Implications for managers, government and academicians are also discussed. • Food safety knowledge of food handlers among hospitality employees positively influences their attitudes towards food safety. • Food handlers' attitude positively influences their perception to personal hygiene. • Food handlers' attitude positively influences their perception to kitchen hygiene. • Food handlers' attitude positively influences their perception to disease control measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]