Food Safety Consciousness When Purchasing Street Food
One of the ways to NOT get food poisoning if you're a regular consumer of street food in Nigeria is to be food safety conscious. The food safety consciousness in you will help you select where and from whom you buy food on the street.
Let's start from the basics. What is street food?
Street food is any ready-to-eat food and beverage product prepared and sold on the street for immediate consumption. Some relatable examples are suya (meat), roasted corn, akara (bean cakes), bole (roasted plantain), okpa (bambara nut pudding), cooked meals from the roadside "buka"/"mama put", etc.
The structure (shed) where street foods are sold are not the best in terms of hygienic design, cleanliness or even aesthetic appeal. However, if you live or have lived in a fast-paced city like Lagos, Nigeria, then you will understand that street food is a major source of hunger-relief and nutrition for the low- to middle-income earners. Street foods also provides a means of livelihood and income to the processors and vendors. This means that street food is very much needed as it takes the stress of food preparation off consumers while at the same time generating revenue for the business owners.
However, there are some unsafe practices or conditions that make street food a potential source of food contamination. You should know them and always look out for them. They include:
- Poor personal hygiene by the cook(s) and vendor(s), example dirty fingernails, long fingernails, dirty clothes or apron, uncovered hair, etc.
- Open knife cuts on the finger/hands of the cook/food vendor.
- Flies and other insects in the surrounding and perching on the food.
- Selling food close to a gutter or waste disposal area.
- Improper washing of vegetables due to inadequate water supply.
- Exposing cooked food to the environment without any form of packaging.
- Use of unwashed knives, plates, cooking spoons and cutlery to prepare and dish food.
- Use of one bowl of water to wash hundreds of plates (typical in buka/mama put).
- Use of plastic water bottles (PET) picked from by the roadside to pack beverages like soya milk, kunu, zobo drink, etc.
- Use of dirty old papers to wrap food (eg roasted corn, bole and groundnut, etc).
Pheeew! The list is endless. The intention of today's newsletter is not to scare you but to awaken your food safety consciousness. So if you're going to continue patronizing street food vendors, you should assess the surrounding, the seller, the food itself and the packaging. If you're not satisfied with the hygiene compliance you see visually, your body will likely not be satisfied. When your body is not satisfied, it tells you through symptoms like diarrhoea, vomiting, stomach upset, etc. Remember that health is wealth.
About the Author
Chidinma Ezinne Ochulor is a certified Food Technologist, a quality assurance professional with over 3 years' experience. She is a professional member of the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology (NIFST). Reach her on LinkedIn, here.
