Food Safety Cultures: A Study of Food Vendors in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Nigeria

Abstract

Food is considered safe when it is free from substances that might compromise individual or populations' health and well-being, and is realizable with appropriate food safety cultures. This study accessed 150 food vendors across four of twelve political wards of the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC who consented to the exercise. Results indicated no significant relationship between location with perception and practices of vendors on food safety, which had mean scores of 0.593, and 0.139 respectively. With p value (< 0.05), there is clearly a significant difference between the options measuring food safety (yes = good, and not sure = fair), and option no (poor) having the highest observed count of 78, the null hypothesis was rejected. As a result, it was concluded that, the food safety culture of food vendors in Abuja will not deliver safe foods to consumers. High market prices of food supplies, complex/cumbersome processes involved with meeting government regulations on food safety with weighted means of 3.3133 and 2.8667 respectively, were identified as the prevalent constraints on food safety cultures among food vendors in Abuja. In assuring safety, while maintaining the benefits of food vending to both sellers and buyers, emphasis should be given in to promoting food safety rather than mere revenue generation among both vendors and local government officials who register these vendors.