Evaluation of street food vendors' hygienic practices using fast observation questionnaire

- Assessment of street food vendors hygiene compliance with requirements.
- Discrete inspection of street food vendors was performed.
- Fast observation questionnaire was designed.
- Fresh meet or fish meals vendors were higher rated than vegetable or fruit ones.

The aim of this study was to check the compliance of street food vendors hygienic practices with requirements of the Codex code of practice - general principles on food hygiene and of the Regulation (EC) No. 852/2004. The materials were 110 street food vendors located in Athens, Greece. Specially designed questionnaire allowed fast data collection. The lowest ratings were found in the hygiene of food preparation and serving, that was related to basic infrastructure, especially the protection of light bulbs from glass spreading in case of breaking, and protection of hair from falling into food by wearing sufficient hair covers or caps. Much higher ratings were found in separation of fresh food from ready-to-eat one and in the section of personal hygiene - lack of visible cuts or skin disease symptoms on hands. One of the most interesting findings is that street vendors selling meat or fish meals obtained higher ratings than vegetable or fruit ones. A greater effort should be made to increase hygiene level especially in the case of small mobile food vendors. Because of variation in hygiene level there is a need for more inspections covering greater number of street food vendors. Due to high popularity of street food and its importance for tourism, more effort should be made to improve the degree of compliance with the hygiene requirements. The fast observation questionaire used in this study allowed rapid assessment of implementation of hygiene principles. Further research is needed to explain why, despite food safety authorities licencing and inspection, implementation of hygiene principles by street food vendors is often incomplete and what factors affect the correct operation.