Evaluation of Sanitary Food Handling Practices among Street Food Vendors: A Case Study of Nakuru County, Kenya

Enduring the test of time, the perilous working condition; and the failure of the ministry of public health and sanitation to acknowledge their existence, street food vendors continue to feed more than a half of the urban populace. Controversial as it may look, whether the street food vendors are illegally into the market system or not, the reality is that the unsuspecting public continues to put itself at risk by consuming food which is not monitored. The street food vendors are the jury and the judges of what is to be sold out or not to be sold to their gullible clients, whose proportion keep on swelling if current trajectory remain the same. It is from this background that the study sought to evaluate sanitary and food handling practices of the street food vendors in Nakuru town. The aim of this paper intents to evaluate sanitary food handling practices among street food vendors in Nakuru County, Kenya. This will bring to light to the unsuspecting general public, especially those who consume street foods on the level of exposure to food borne diseases by virtue of consuming it. The study population was all street food vendors. The target population was all street food vendors who cook and sell cooked foods on the street, while the accessible population was all street food vendors who meet the inclusion criteria within Nakuru central business district. A cross-sectional study design was used. A sample size of 384 was arrived at by use of Fischer’s et al., [1] formula. The study employed cluster sampling design as explained by Mugenda et al., [2] and Kothari [3]. The central business district was then clustered into four quadrants and proportionate sampling was done. A sampling frame of street food vendors was developed from each cluster and randomly sampled to identify the required number of respondents, as elaborated by Ahuja et al., [4]. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected. Pre-tested and standardized structured questionnaires and observation checklist were used. Data was analyzed using Microsoft-excel and SPSS version 17 and presented descriptively. The findings showed that 318(83%) had a cleaned their workplace, 207(54%) of the vendors handled money and food indiscriminate, 169(44%) had dust bins and 280(73%) of respondents did not have their hair covered. The study recommends the concerned stakeholders to conduct periodic health education and promotion training on sanitary food handling practices among street food vendors.