Abstract:
Results of the pre intervention survey showed that the baseline knowledge was poor in the
areas of food contamination, food borne diseases, safe handling, personal hygiene, time
temperature control and handling high risk cooked foods. Vendors had unfavorable views,
particularly towards the available facilities and supportive services available to maintain a
conducive environment to provide consumers with safer food. However, positive attitudes
regarding personal hygiene were not observed in practices. The vendors had minimal
personal hygiene and over 50 percent were seen to handle cooked food with bare hands. It
was revealed that over 50 percent of the study population had received information on safe
food handling through Public Health Inspectors. Standard method (International Standards
Organization) was used for the enumeration of selected microbiological profile. According
to the health department criteria, boiled gram, cooked rice packets and string hoppers were
of unacceptable. quality. E coli was detected in more than 90 present of samples of boiled
gram.
