%0 Journal Article
%T Food Safety Challenges towards Safe, Healthy, and Nutritious Street Foods in Bangladesh
%A Md. Khairuzzaman
%A Fatema Moni Chowdhury
%A Sharmin Zaman
%A Arafat Al Mamun
%A Md. Latiful Bari
%J International Journal of Food Science
%D 2014
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2014/483519
%X The street foods play an important socioeconomic role in meeting food and nutritional requirements of city consumers at affordable prices to the lower and middle income people. The number of food poisoning notifications rose steadily worldwide since the inception of E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the 1980s to date. This may be partly attributed to improved surveillance, increased global trade and travel, changes in modern food production, the impact of modern lifestyles, changes in food consumption, and the emergence of new pathogens. Consumer¡¯s knowledge and attitude may influence food safety behavior and practice. For the sake of public health, it is important to understand the epidemiology of foodborne illnesses that help in prevention and control efforts, appropriately allocating resources to control foodborne illness, monitoring and evaluation of food safety measures, development of new food safety standards, and assessment of the cost-effectiveness of interventions. This review paper described the sociodemographic characteristics, common hazards, and occupational hazards of street food vendors, microbial risk associated with street food, food safety interventions and control measures, regulatory aspects and legal requirements, financial constraints, and attitudes. 1. Introduction The street foods play an important socioeconomic role in meeting food and nutritional requirements of city consumers at affordable prices to the lower and middle income groups and are appreciated for their unique flavors and convenience [1¨C3]. Street foods also assure food security for low income urban population and livelihood for a significant proportion of the population in many developing countries. Street foods are described as wide range of ready-to-eat foods and beverages or prepared at home and consumed on the streets without further preparation [4]. These food items are usually sold by vendors and hawkers in the streets or other similar public places. While street vended foods are appreciated for their unique flavors as well as their convenience, they are also important in contributing to the nutritional status of the population. In contrast to these potential benefits, it is also recognized that street food vendors are often poor, uneducated, and lack knowledge in safe food handling, environment, sanitation and hygiene, mode of food display, food service and hand washing, sources of raw materials, and use of potable water. Consequently, street foods are perceived to be a major public health risk [5]. Foodborne illnesses of microbial origin are a major health
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfs/2014/483519/