Study on food safety knowledge, attitude and practices followed by street food vendors in Chennai, India

The study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the Food Safety Knowledge, Attitude and Practices followed by the Street Food Vendors in Chennai. A total of 138 street food vendors were surveyed over a period of one month by convenient sampling from southern parts of Chennai. A structured questionnaire consisting of 15 questions was used to record the responses of participants. Quantitative and qualitative methodology was adopted to collect the responses from the vendors. This study revealed that a majority of the vendors, (76%) of them were not registered or licensed as food business operators. In addition to this, 82.6% of the respondents possessed minimum knowledge on food safety and 39.9 % are aware of the laws and regulations that govern their business. The practices followed which were categorized as general hygiene, personal hygiene, food handling, packaging practices and cooking practices varied among the vendors. The vendors showed a positive attitude towards training and 76.1% were willing to attend the training underscoring the need for such training program to enhance compliance to standards.