Food safety & socioeconomic considerations of Brazil's street food industry

Previously, I looked at food safety in the Nigerian street food market, where research indicated that there was a lack of food safety knowledge among street food vendors, and this was likely correlated with a lack of formalized food safety training in that country. A new study looks at street food in Salvador, Brazil, and focuses not only in the food safety implications of the industry, but also on its contributions to the economy.

Similar to the demography of Nigerian street food vendors, the majority of those (56%) in Salvador were found to be women. Street food plays an important role in the economy in many lower-income regions, as it allows a source of income for women (who often are the head of household in lower income families), and also provides affordable food to low-income consumers. In Salvador, because the street food is positioned near the beach, it largely caters to out-of-town visitors, allowing 95% of the vendors to earn up to $186USD per day; the average income of the vendors was between 1 and 3 times the Brazilian minimum wage. Interestingly, though the majority of vendors were female, females were found to have an income slightly lower than their male counterparts.

The average (mean) age of the vendors was 40 years old, showing that this is a group of individuals who would otherwise be in the workforce in some other way. Again, showing the importance of street food to the economy, 54% of vendors were the heads of their families, with street food being the sole source of income. 86% of vendors were their own bosses, and 34% worked every day of the week. Interestingly, 46% of vendors only worked on weekends, presumably when there would be more patrons visiting the beach.

The other aspect of the study was food safety habits among the vendors. Similarly to Nigeria, hand washing was essentially non-existent: 23% of vendors reported that they "never" washed their hands, while only 41% washed their hands "often". As there are no sanitary facilities available at the beach, those vendors who did wash their hands had to rely on water brought from home, or in certain cases, sea water. Most vendors did bring water from home for use in their food sales, with 92% using it to drink, and only 61% using it for hand washing. Less than 30% of vendors were found to be sanitizing their food preparation surfaces and equipment, and the majority of perishable food items were not stored properly. I found it somewhat humorous that 82% of vendors stored beverages in Styrofoam coolers to keep them cold, but only 38% stored potentially hazardous food items in the same way.

Since the removal of food kiosks at the Salvador beach, street food has become essentially the only place to eat. The data from this study shows that there's clearly a market for street food in the area, allowing vendors to make a relatively decent income, and provide for their families. Given the economic importance of the industry, logical next steps would implementing some food safety measures to ensure customers (and workers) don't become ill. Requirements like those in B.C. (mechanical refrigeration, hand washing stations, etc.) would be overkill, and would likely put many of these vendors out of business. However, providing formalized food safety training, similar to that recommended for Nigeria, would enable the vendors to make their own outcome-based decisions on how to best run their businesses. A simple explanation of the importance of cold-holding could move some of those beverages out of the coolers to make room for the potentially hazardous food items!

Source: Silva, S. A., Cardoso, R. D., Góes, J. Â, Santos, J. N., Ramos, F. P., Jesus, R. B., ... Silva, P. S. (2014, 12). Street food on the coast of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil: A study from the socioeconomic and food safety perspectives. Food Control, 40, 78-84.

Street food in Nigeria: how safe is it?

Street food is becoming more popular throughout the world. It's not just us first-world people who watch "The Great Food Truck Race" on the Food Network, but globally people are seeking new ways to provide inexpensive, ready-to-eat food products to consumers on the go.

Typically, reducing a food service into a "mobile" location brings with it some inherent food safety challenges: new electricity sources need to be identified, water usage has to be limited to that which can be contained in freshwater and grey water tanks, there's not a lot of storage space, etc. With a good food safety plan, all of these challenges can be reduced. However, therein lies the rub: do mobile food service operators have the food safety acumen to develop a good food safety plan?

A group of Nigerian researchers looked to answer this very question by surveying 160 street food vendors to study food safety behaviors and hygiene practices. What they found wasn't great, if I'm being honest. Nothing in the study made me want to hop aboard a flight to southwestern Nigeria for some street meat. Nearly 62% of respondents had no formal food safety training at all, which was reflected in their hygiene practiced and attitudes toward keeping consumers safe. A stunning 3.8% of respondents "always" store food in the refrigerator, while 76% don't store food at refrigerated temperatures, and 16% don't have any food storage facilities at all.

In terms of personal hygiene, only 17% of respondents "always" washed their hands after using the toilet (though 79% responded that they did so "often"). Unfortunately, 77% of respondents admitted to using a reusable household towel to dry their hands after washing, instead of single-use paper towel.

Given the hygiene behaviors identified during the survey, it's very likely that there's a correlation between worker knowledge on how to prevent food-borne illnesses and formalized food safety training. While socioeconomic factors can reduce an individual's access to this type of training, and their ability to take time away from the workforce to participate, some sort of state-funded option could go a long way toward correcting some of these behaviors. Further, inspections and legislation surrounding street food (full disclosure: I don't know what's already in place in Nigeria) could ensure that vendors have refrigerated storage where necessary, and access to soap and paper towels for hand washing.


Source: Aluko, O.O., Ojeremi, T.T., Olaleke, D.A., & Ajidagba, E.B. (2014). Evaluation of food safety and sanitary practices among food vendors at car parks in Ile Ife, southwestern Nigeria. Food Control, 40, 165-171.