European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

FOOD HYGIENE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE AMONG STREET FOOD VENDORS IN OJO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, LAGOS STATE

Ehimen Bello Ebukhaile*, Babatunde Enitan Ogunnowo, Olatona Foluke Adenike,
Racheal Osareme Ebukhaile and Lucky Uche Ubulu

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Low and middle-income countries are currently dealing with the problem of foodborne illness connected to food consumption infected by microbes isolated from ready-to-eat items sold on the street, causing the death of about 200,000 Nigerians every year. Objectives: This study determined food hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practices among street food vendors in Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos state, Nigeria. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study employed a multi-stage sampling technique to select 399 street food vendors in Ojo LGA Lagos. Data collection was carried out using an interviewer-administered questionnaire and observational checklist. IBM SPSS (Version 25) was used for analysis, and the association between variables was determined using Chi-square. The level of significance was set at P= < 0.05. Results: Only 70% of the food vendors had good knowledge of food hygiene, positive attitude towards food hygiene 92%, good self-reported food hygiene practices 67%, while the observed food hygiene practices were poor 58%. Education had an influence on knowledge of food hygiene among food vendors (P= 0.028). The food vendors' attitude was associated with gender (P= 0.000) and educational level (P=0 .035), while the observed practice of food hygiene was associated with age (P= 0.041) and educational level (P= 0.041). Conclusion: Despite the good knowledge and attitude observed, food hygiene practices were poor among the food vendors. Education was the only factor associated with knowledge, and gender and education were associated with attitude, age and education were associated with observed practice. All food vendors need health education and continuous monitoring strategies.

Keywords: Food hygiene, Street foods, Foodborne diseases, and Food vendors.