Assessment of Food Safety and Food Hygiene Practices Among Food Vendors in Public Eating Places in Kampala:

Abstract

This study was set to assess the food safety and food hygiene practices among food vendors in Kampala basing on a case study of Nakasero market. The three specific study objectives explored were; to assess the knowledge of food handlers on proper food handling techniques in public places, to assess the storage methods and length of time food items are stored prior to and after preparation, to identify common contamination routes and hygiene levels during food processing and preparation. A cross sectional study was carried out in Nakasero market. Simple random sampling was used to obtain the first respondents then the researcher and his team followed that direction while obtaining the remaining number of respondents. The rest of the respondents were purposively selected until the desired number of respondents was attained. The sample size was 393 respondents and interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The findings in the study indicate that 54.1% of food vendors relatively observed good food and hygiene practices and also vendors had good food handling practices. The study also found out that 42.5% of the respondents had high knowledge on food hygiene although it also indicated that 65.4% of the respondents did not have registration certificates. The government, through the ministry of health and subsequent local leaders further need to enforce sanitation policies within the area by ensuring regular supervisions and if need be suspensions if required standards are not met. The local government and leaders of Nakasero market need to also innovate methods, policies that best suit the vendors in the market in order to maintain the standards that are required and acceptable.