Food Hygiene, Safety Measures, and Associated Factors among Street Food Vendors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Implications for Intervention Activity Design and Implementation

Abstract

Background. Foodborne outbreaks and epidemic diseases are common in resource-limited countries. Many people in developing countries are increasing their habit of eating fast foods prepared on the street due to their low cost and accessibility, while most of them get sick due to poor food hygiene practices and safety measures among the street food vendors. Therefore, this research is aimed at assessing food hygiene knowledge, practices, and associated factors among street food vendors. Methods. A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 494 street food vendors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The data were collected using a face-to-face interview with a pretested questionnaire. All precautions for prevention of COVID-19 were followed since the study was conducted during the COVID-19 era. The data were entered into a computer and cleaned using EpiData 3.4 before being exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. A multivariable logistic regression with a 95% confidence interval was used to identify the factors that were significantly associated with poor hygiene practice. Results. In this study, 78% of street food vendors had poor hygienic practices. Monthly income less than 2000 birr ($\text{AOR}=1.95$, 95% CI (1.36, 11.26), $p=0.014$), age groups less than 25 years of age ($\text{AOR}=3.17$, 95% CI (1.12, 8.97), $p=0.03$), food vendors who prepare food while not healthy ($\text{AOR}=2.07$, 95% CI (1.25, 5.93), $p=0.025$), and lack of toilet facilities ($\text{AOR}=2.84$, 95% CI (1.58, 9.68), $p\le 0.001$) were significantly associated with the poor hygiene practices of street food vendors at a significance level of $p\le 0.05$. Conclusions. The general food hygiene practices and safety measures were poor. Age groups younger than 25 years of age, monthly income less than 2000 birr, preparing food while sick, and lack of access to toilet facilities were significantly associated with poor food hygiene and safety practices. To promote food safety and community health, street food vendors should receive health education and training about proper food hygiene practices through health extension workers and mass media. Basic infrastructure and services like clean water supply and waste disposal facilities should be provided for street vendors to improve food hygiene and safety practices.