Personal hygiene of street-food vendors in Sabon-Gari local government area of Kaduna State, Nigeria

Background and Aims: Street-food vendors play an important role in the aetiology of food borne disease outbreaks. Food borne disease pathogens may be transferred by street-food vendors to food either directly or by cross contamination. This study assessed the personal hygiene among street-food vendors in Sabon Gari Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Methods: It was a cross sectional study conducted among 109 adult street-food vendors who sell cooked food or food items by the road side or open spaces in Sabon Gari LGA. Multistage sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Data was collected using observation checklist and pretested interviewer administered structured questionnaire with closed-ended questions. The data obtained was analysed using IBM SPSS statistics 20. Results: Most of the street-food vendors were within age group 35-44 years (40.4%). Most (49.5%) of the people who patronized street-food vendors were passers-by and more than half of the street-food vendors operate under a shade (50.5%). All the street-food vendors did not receive training on personal hygiene. More than half of the street-food vendors 55 (50.4%) had poor personal hygiene. Also 103 (94.5%) and 100 (91.7%) of the food vending sites has chairs/benches where customers could sit to eat and cooking spot separated from the serving area, respectively. Conclusion: Most of the street-food vendors had poor personal hygiene, however majority had a fairly good environmental sanitation status around their vending sites. Formal training on personal hygiene should be conducted among all street-food vendors in the LGA in order to improve on their personal hygiene practice for the vending of safe food to their consumers.