Food safety knowledge, attitude, and practices of street food vendors in the Klang Valley, Malaysia

The term street food is synonyms with other words such as hawker food or ready-to-eat (RTE) foods that are prepared by vendors from their stalls for customers’ on-site consumption or takeaways. Street food vendors in Malaysia are proliferating in the local market because the foods available are reasonably priced and easily accessible to consumers. However, the presence of street food vendors has been argued to be the cause of foodborne disease due to unsanitary practices and sanitation procedures. As a result, street food vendors have become a major source of food safety concerns in Malaysia. Street foods are viewed as a serious public health concern due to a lack of basic infrastructure and services, poor food handling and storage procedures, and the difficulties associated with supervising numerous street food vending businesses attributable to their variety, flexibility, and impermanent nature. Furthermore, street food vendors are largely untrained and lack an understanding of the proper food handling process. Since dining at street food vendors has become a norm among Malaysians, customers are exposed to the danger of foodborne illnesses. Despite health concerns, the need for street food in Malaysia is growing. Therefore, the main objective of the study is to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of street food vendors towards food safety. Four (4) specific objectives of the study were established; 1) to determine the food safety knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) levels of street food vendors; 2) to examine the relationships between food safety knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) levels among street food vendors; 3) to determine the associations between demographic characteristics and food safety practices among street food vendors; and 4) to investigate the most influential factor that influences food safety practices among street food vendors. Using the purposive sampling method, a total of 268 respondents were chosen for this study. The location of study was conducted in the Klang Valley area. A structured questionnaire consisted of four (4) main sections namely Section A, which consisted of questions on respondents’ demographic characteristics, Section B comprised of questions regarding knowledge of food safety, Section C consisted of questions on attitude towards food safety, and section D comprised of questions on practices towards food safety. The respondents’ responses were obtained using a structured questionnaire via face-to-face interviews. Descriptive analysis, Chi-square analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and logistics regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Most street food vendors have adequate knowledge (81.7%), favorable attitude (89.2%), and good practices (91.4%) towards food safety. There were statistically significant positive correlations between knowledge and attitude (r = 0.301, p = 0.000), attitude and practices (r = 0.279, p = 0.000), and knowledge and practices (r = 0.269, p = 0.000) of street food vendors on food safety. Education level (χ2 = 10.213, p = 0.069), type of stalls (χ2 = 4.693, p = 0.030), monthly revenue (χ2 = 10.233, p = 0.006), license (χ2 = 4.871, p = 0.027), food safety training (χ2 = 11.963, p = 0.001), and typhoid injection (χ2 = 7.963, p = 0.005) were significantly associated with food safety practices among street food vendors. Logistic regression analysis showed seven (7) variables namely knowledge, attitude, education level, type of stalls, monthly revenue, food safety training, and typhoid injection were the influential factors influencing food safety practices among street food vendors. The results emphasized that monthly revenue was an important variable in providing good food safety practices upon handling the foods. This study indicated that the knowledge, attitude, and practices levels of street food vendors were relatively good. In-house food safety training should be implemented, and educational food safety programs, seminars, and workshops are necessary to educate and raise awareness of street food vendors. Providing incentives like equipment purchasing subsidies, and microcredit programs by authorities will help to improve the revenue of street food vendors hence improving the food safety practices in their workplace.

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