Abstrait

Position of street food vendors and food handling practices in Mbeya city Tanzania.

L Peter Meleki

When it comes to positioned food vendors and vending sites, experiences showed that cities in many other settings around the world have similar situations and health risk consequences. This study aimed to investigate the current non-compliance features in food handling practices amongst the street food vendors in their natural setting and the environment they work in Tanzania, A cross-sectional study conducted in urban and peri-urban two wards each, of which 96 food vendors were studied from June to December 2014 in Mbeya City Tanzania. The questionnaires include direct and in-direct observation checklist used to identify the position of food vendors and multivariable logistic regression analysis with the support of 95% confidence interval interpreted the association features in practices. The vast majority of 72% of the food vendors in the study area only attended elementary, primary education. Most of the vendors, 94% observed sold vended food at temperatures of below 63°C (145°F); the prevailing condition may pose a risk pathogenic growth of foodborne diseases that is statistically significant at OR=14.4 (5.57-37.22) p=<0.0001.