ASSESMENT OF HYGIENIC PRACTICES OF FOOD SELLING VENDORS IN STREETS OF LAHORE

Introduction: 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. Street food sector operates in an unstable and precarious state because the sector lacks legal recognition. There have been noticeable increases of food vendors in Lahore. There are not regulated, they operate haphazardly without any monitoring of what they prepare and how they do it. Objectives: Objective of study was to assess personal hygiene of food selling vendors, their practices during food preparation & handling, to assess environmental hygiene around food selling area. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Study was conducted at Lahore. Material and Methods: A study to determine hygienic and sanitary practices of vendors of street foods in Lahore was carried out using a descriptive survey design. Data was collected using in-depth interview schedules and observation checklists. Results: About 50.0% obtained food preparation skills through self-taught while 33.33% were taught by their parents. Sixty seven percent patients did not use aprons, 76.7% wore no hair covering and 93.3% handled food with bare hands. About 66.7% of the vendors had garbage and waste bins beside the food stalls. Mean nasal obstruction in the case of ventilated nasal and with Vaseline nasal pack was observed respectively as (45.62±6.17) & (77.67±4.85) and significant value of p = 0.001in each group. Conclusion: Street food vendors practiced minimal hygienic and sanitary practices. Keywords: Street foods, hygiene and sanitation