Abstract:
Abstract: Safety of food is a basic requirement of food quality. The street food industry has an important role
in the cities and towns of many developing countries in meeting the food demands of the urban dwellers. It
feeds millions of people daily with a wide variety of foods that are relatively cheap and easily accessible.
However, concerns have been raised about the safety and quality of street vended foods. This study was done
to assess the bacteriological quality and associated factors of street vended foods and their public health
implications. A facility based cross-sectional study was used to undertake the study from March to May, 2016
in Gondar, Ethiopia. Thirty street foods samples (10 ‘Bonbolino’, 10 ‘bread’ and 10 ‘donate’) were aseptically
collected from four locations (Arada, Stadium, Hospital and Collage) of Gondar. Interview and observational
assessments were also used to collect socio-demographic data and possible risk factors from street food
vendors. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Ethical clearance was secured before data
collection. Analysis of the food samples revealed that 65.5% of the food samples were contaminated with one
or more bacteria. The isolated bacteria were total coliforms 11227 cfu/gm (26.43%), S. aureus15096 cfu/gm
(35.54%) and 16155 cfu/gm (38.03%) Salmonella species. Among 40 study participants 38(95%) were females
and 4(10%) were illiterates. In this study only 16 (40%) of the venders knew about street food contamination
while more than half 22(53.7%) of the study participants have had poor attitude towards food contamination.
As a results, street foods in the study area were contaminated with one or more bacteria’s. Poor personal
hygiene, improper handling and storage practice of foods and poor knowledge of food vendors towards food
borne diseases were the associated factors to contamination of street vended foods in Gondar town. Therefore,
concerned bodies should give health education to street food vendors to improve their hygienic conditions
during the preparation, handling, storing and serving of foods
