Study on Assessment of Food Safety and Hygiene Practices among Street Food Vendors in Delhi, India

“Study on Assessment of Food Safety and Hygiene Practices among Street Food Vendors in Delhi, India”

Chander Pal Thakur

BPT, PGDHHM, PHFI, New Delhi, India

Introduction:A study was done to assess food safety and hygiene practices among street food vendors in Delhi,India.
Methods:Practices and hygiene status of 200 street food vendors were studied by questionnaire based findings and observations of vending site.Data was entered and analyzed with the help of statistical tools.
Findings and Discussion:It was found that majority of the respondents (33%) were in the age group of 25+ years i.e. 25 to 34 years and 24% were illiterate.Around 36% of the vendors were permanent resident of Delhi and from rest of the respondents 55% were from Uttar Pradesh only.Ninety percent (90%) of the vendors were operating full time and 40% were earning more than Rs. 10,000 and above per month.None of the respondents were registered or licensed.Seventy percent were disposing garbage in open lid bins and 16% were throwing it on the road.With regard to personal hygiene, only 3% of the vendors were using hand gloves and from rest of the respondents only 2% were washing hands before and after handling raw or cooked food.Majority of respondents (72%) had short clean nails and few (4%) had open wounds pr