Abstract:
Compliance by street fruit salad and juice vendors with national food safety and quality requirements was evaluated. Evaluation was based on good manufacturing practices (GMP), good hygienic practices (GHP), selected heavy metals, physicochemical properties and microbiological quality parameters. Compliance by street vendors was also compared to vendors in university cafeterias and town restaurants. Among the fruit salad and fruit juice vendors, 71.4% and 54.3%, respectively, had no food safety knowledge. All vendors were not compliant with GHP and GMP. Fruit salad (94.1%) and 85.7% juice vendors were familiar with TBS and none, familiar with TFDA. A general compliance assessment using various indicators showed a range of 50-71% compliance for the right location and premises, 8-25% sanitation level, 0-50% processing and cleaning and ≤25% for personal hygiene. Samples were found free from heavy metals cadmium and lead, with one juice sample having 0.24mg/L copper. Ninety seven percent of juice and 85% of salad samples contained >3×106CFU/ml or g of aerobic mesophilic count. Fifty one percent of the juice samples had fungi>2.5×106CFU/ml with 41% having an average of 1.64×105 CFU/ml while for salads, 48% of the samples had an average fungi of 1.18×103 CFU/g. Moulds tentatively identified were Aspergillus spp and Cladosporium spp. Twelve percent of fruit juices had 2.8×103 MPN/ml of coliforms and 88% of the samples had ≥1.6×104 MPN/ml of juice. Salads had an average load of 2.4×103MPN/g with 62% having ≥1.6×104 MPN/g of coliforms. Ninety four percent of juice and 82% of salad samples were contaminated with E. coli with one sample containing E. coli O157:H7. Vendors on streets, at Universities and in restaurants were not significantly different in their compliance to hygiene requirements and microbiological quality criteria (P>0.05).Results of this study indicated the need for educating street vendors and other stakeholders in food hygiene to improve food safety.
