HYGIENE PRACTICE AND SANITARY CONDITION OF STREET FOOD VENDING IN YIRBA TOWN, BORICHA WOREDA, SIDAMA REGION, ETHIOPIA

<strong>Abstract</strong>: Street food vending is one of the means of income generation in most developing countries. Lack of basic infrastructure, poor knowledge of hygiene and practices in food vending sites can contribute to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. However, food hygiene is an important public health issue. To prevent illness caused by unsafe food delivery from street food venders, awareness about good quality food production and consumption is important. There is limited information about the hygienic practice and sanitary condition of street food vending in the Yirba town. So, this study aimed to assess the hygienic practice and sanitary conditions of street vending sites at Borche Woreda, Yirba Town. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Yirba town from January to July 2022. A total of 137 street food vendors were assessed and data were collected using questionnaire, interviews and observation checklist on vendor’s knowledge of food hygiene and their practices as well on sanitary conditions of the street food vending sites. Furthermore, the bacteriological quality of the forty eight street food samples were analyzed by aerobic mesophilic bacterial count, and total coliform. About 87% of the vendors had poor hygiene practices and 84.8% of the surveyed participants carried out their work in poor environmental conditions. Furthermore, 89.1% of the participated street food vendors work in an unclean environment. In other ways, 82.2% of the sample showed an unsatisfactory level for aerobic mesophilic bacteria count and about 89.1% of the street food showed an unsatisfactory level for the total coliform count. From all food samples, Sambusa 3.6 cfu/ml showed the highest count in aerobic mesophilic bacteria counts and the total coliform count was highest in Injera with 0.85 cfu/ml. Moreover, the bacteriological quality analysis associated with risk factors for the sanitation condition of venders of food also shows the result beyond the recommended limit for the tests conducted. Awareness creation acting a solution task for food safety and handling so the concerned bodies should commit to providing food safety training to street vendors.