World Food Safety Day: A Focus on Safety of Street Foods

Each year on June 7, the world observes World Food Safety Day, a global initiative that highlights the importance of safe food in protecting health, preventing disease, and supporting sustainable development. The theme for World Food Safety Day 2026, “From burden to solutions – safe food everywhere,” encourages us to move beyond simply recognising the impact of foodborne diseases and to focus on practical actions that make food safer for everyone, wherever food is grown, prepared, sold, or consumed. One area where this theme is especially relevant is street foods, which play an important role in feeding millions of people every day. Some recent local research offers valuable insights into both the strengths and the challenges of food safety within this important sector.

In Ghana, street foods are an important part of daily life. From waakye, Hausa koko and koose, to kenkey, rice dishes, roasted plantain, and local beverages, millions of Ghanaians depend on street foods every day for affordable, accessible, and convenient meals. Street food vending also provides livelihoods for many families and contributes significantly to local economies.

Encouragingly local evidence suggests that food safety training, vendor licensing, and improved food-handling practices can play an important role in moving us from the burden of foodborne disease towards safer food environments for all.

What researchers did and what they found

Addo-Tham and colleagues conducted the study in the Ejisu-Juaben municipality in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. They assessed food safety knowledge and food-handling practices among 340 street food vendors. 

The researchers found that almost all vendors (98.8%) demonstrated good food safety knowledge, while 85.2% were observed to have generally good food-handling practices during food service. Importantly, vendors who had received food safety training and those who held operating licences generally performed better in both food safety knowledge and food-handling practices. These findings remind us that food safety is not simply a matter of individual responsibility. Training, supervision, and supportive systems can make a real difference.

Recognising the Work of Municipal Authorities

One aspect of the study that deserves special attention is the apparent impact of food safety training.

The paper notes that Environmental Health Departments within Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies are responsible for ensuring that food vendors are medically screened, certified, and periodically trained in food hygiene and sanitation. The study further reported that approximately 62% of vendors had attended training organised by the assembly.
The fact that trained vendors demonstrated better food safety knowledge and handling practices suggests that these efforts are making a positive contribution.

On World Food Safety Day, it is therefore fitting to acknowledge the work of Environmental Health Officers and Municipal Assemblies across Ghana. Their often unseen efforts in training, licensing, inspection, and public education form an important part of our national food safety system.

The Good Practices Observed

The study identified several encouraging food-handling practices among vendors.

Most vendors served food hot, protected food from flies, and prevented customers from making direct contact with food during serving. These are important measures that help reduce contamination and improve food safety.

Such findings challenge the assumption that street foods are automatically unsafe. Many vendors are clearly making efforts to apply food safety principles in their daily work.

Areas That Still Need Improvement

The study also identified practices that warrant attention.

Nearly three-quarters of vendors used the same hand to serve food and collect money, while approximately 44% handled food with bare hands. Some foods were also exposed to flies, and a small proportion of vendors served foods that were not adequately hot.

These findings matter because money, hands, insects, contaminated surfaces, and improper temperature control can all contribute to the transmission of disease-causing microorganisms.

Food safety is often described as a chain. Even when most links in the chain are strong, a few weak links can create opportunities for contamination.

An Important Limitation: The Hawthorne Effect

While the findings are encouraging, it is important to understand one of the study’s limitations.

The researchers acknowledged the possibility of what scientists call the Hawthorne Effect. This occurs when people change their behaviour because they know they are being observed. In this case, food vendors may have been more careful with their food-handling practices because they knew they were participating in a study.

The researchers attempted to minimise this effect by obtaining consent before the observation period and then conducting observations on a different day without notifying participants exactly when observations would occur. Nevertheless, they recognised that some degree of behaviour change may still have occurred.

This is an important reminder when interpreting research findings. The real test of food safety is not what happens when someone is watching. The real test is what happens every day when no one is watching.

What Can Consumers Do?

Food safety is a shared responsibility. Consumers can support safer food environments by purchasing food from vendors who:

• Keep foods covered.
• Serve foods hot where appropriate.
• Maintain clean surroundings.
• Demonstrate good personal hygiene.
• Minimise direct hand contact with ready-to-eat foods.
• Separate food handling from money handling whenever possible.

Supporting vendors who demonstrate good practices also creates incentives for others to do the same.

A Balanced Perspective

Street foods remain an important source of food and nutrition for many Ghanaians. The evidence from this study suggests that many vendors possess good food safety knowledge and are making genuine efforts to handle food safely. The findings also highlight the positive contribution of municipal food safety training programmes.

At the same time, the study reminds us that food safety is a continuous journey rather than a destination. Ongoing training, regular supervision, access to sanitation facilities, clean water, and consistent application of safe food-handling practices remain essential.

This World Food Safety Day, let us celebrate the hardworking vendors who feed our communities, acknowledge the Environmental Health Officers and Municipal Assemblies working to improve food safety, and recommit ourselves to the shared goal of making safe food available to all.

Written by Dr. Laurene Boateng (PhD, RD)
Dr. Laurene Boateng is a Registered Dietitian and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Dietetics, University of Ghana. She is the founder and editor-in-chief of Full Proof Nutrition, a Nutrition Consultancy committed to providing reliable, evidence-based, and practical healthy eating advice through its website www.fullproofnutrition.com.  Click here to join Full Proof Nutrition WhatsApp channel to receive more educative content. Send us a mail on fullproofnutrition@gmail.com. Grab a copy of my book on healthy eating – available now on Selar (Buy HEALTHY EATING MADE SIMPLE by Laurene Boateng on Selar) and Amazon (https://amzn.eu/d/6i9OeVb).

Reference

Addo-Tham, R., Appiah-Brempong, E., Vampere, H., Acquah-Gyan, E., & Akwasi, A. G. (2020). Knowledge on food safety and food-handling practices of street food vendors in Ejisu-Juaben Municipality of Ghana. Advances in Public Health, 2020, Article 4579573. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4579573