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Volume 13 Issue 2 (February) 2024

Original Articles

A Community Study To Assess The Personal Hygiene Among Food Vendors
Dr. B. Prabakaran, Dr. S. Srinivasan

Background: The term "street food" refers to a wide variety of ready-to- eat foods and beverages sold and sometimes prepared, in public places. Street food may be consumed where it was purchased or can be taken away and eaten else- where. One of the frequent problems in the sale of street foods is their actual and potential hazard caused by bacterial contamination. The conditions under which street vendors operate are often undesirable for both the preparation and the selling of food. Poor personal hygiene frequently contributes to food borne illness which indicates that food handlers’ knowledge and handling practices needs to be improved. Hence this study was conducted with the purpose to shed light on practice on personal hygiene among street food vendors and also to evaluate the impact of sociodemographic factors on Urban population in South Indian City. Methodology: This study was conducted as a cross sectional quantitative study design done among urban population in a south Indian city in Tamilnadu. Around 110 food vendors were interviewed and included in this study. The Questionnaire was developed keeping in mind the objectives of the study. Results: All the study participants washed hands after using handling waste or garbage and after using toilet. Only 26.4% wore head cap or gloves while handling food stuffs.51.8%, 80% of the food vendors don’t handle food stuffs during fever and while having infected cuts respectively. Large number of vendors (73.6%) wore gloves while handling food items. Among the study population, 64.5% (71) had bad practice of personal hygiene. Conclusion: Food vendors should be adequately educated on the role of food in disease transmission as well as on rules of personal hygiene and approved practices in handling street food. Making safe food a top priority to prevent food borne diseases, protect the health of your family and community, and being confident about the safety of the food you eat is utmost important. Food vendors should be adequately educated on the role of food in disease transmission as well as on rules of personal hygiene and approved practices in handling street food.

 
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