title: Impact of health education intervention on food safety and hygiene of street vendors: A pilot study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Street foods are major source of food to millions of people. However, these are frequently associated with food-borne illnesses. It is imperative that street food vendors are educated to maintain hygiene and hence safety of food. With this background, a pilot study was undertaken to assess the impact of health education intervention on food safety and hygiene of street vendors. The aim of this study was to assess impact of health education intervention on food safety of street vendors.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was a before and after study conducted in twenty street vendors of an urban area. Tool based on Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) 2012 was prepared with scoring system to rate hygiene and sanitation of street vendors (score 0-156). Health education was given to all and scores of these vendors on same tool were reassessed after four weeks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean age of the study subjects was 35 ± 13.2 years. Highest score attained in BIS tool for food safety was 104 out of 156 (66.6%). No vendor was found to have achieved excellent score. Reasons for poor score were poor condition of vending cart, location, lack personal hygiene and incorrect and unsafe food handling practices. After intervention, it was observed that there was no significant improvement in overall score of vendors. However, scores in domains of personal habits, hygiene and food handling practices improved significantly after intervention (p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The street vendors do not meet required standards given by BIS for food safety. Health education alone can only partly improve food safety practices of street vendors.
authors.affiliation: Medical Cadet, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: Ansk Kumar
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: Puja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dudeja
authors.affiliation: Resident, Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: Nitin
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kaushal
authors.affiliation: Professor & Head, Department of Community Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune 411040, India.
authors.forename: Sandip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mukherji
keywords: Health education; Hygiene; Street food; Street vendors