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THE IMPACT OF STREET FOOD VENDORS’ KNOWLEDGE ON THE COOKING PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY OF CHAPATI, CHIPS AND CHICKEN VENDORS AT NKUMBA UNIVERSITY STAGE TO ABAITA ABABIRI

The study was about impact of food vendors’ knowledge on the cooking practices: a case study of chapati, chips and chicken vendors at Nkumba University stage to Abaita Ababiri. The problem of street foods is 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. The objectives of the study were: to find out the level of knowledge of street food vendors along Entebbe Highway; to find out how the level of knowledge impacts on the cooking practices of street food vendors along Entebbe Highway ; and to come up with appropriate food cooking practices that can improve on street food quality. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative designs because both are important in analyzing data. The qualitative approach enabled the researcher to follow many steps which make the collection of the required data to be in depth, and to describe the behaviors of the respondents. The quantitative research design on the other hand enabled the researcher to capture the statistics needed for the research. The findings of the study showed that the majority of the respondents had no formal knowledge of what cooking practices are with 22(88%) implying that most of the street food vendors have skills of the basic cooking practices through experience but not formal knowledge of cooking. The food vendors’ level of knowledge of cooking practices included knowledge cooking practices involving cooking, Frying, Boiling, warming food and roasting mainly carried out in open air stalls and stalls surrounded with plastic material or plant material. The level of knowledge impacted on the cooking practices of street food vendors in a way that most of they had a set menu for determining the amount of food to cook. The knowledge of how to clean cooking equipment made cooking easier and inspired the street food vendors to come up with good dishes because the clean equipment provided for energy saving during the preparation of the foods and also encouraged more repeat customers. The street food vendors suggested appropriate food cooking practices that can improve on street food quality and these included ensuring that street food vendors concentrate on all the areas of food hygiene, wearing uniforms when preparing food, carrying out routine cleaning, getting training, sheltering and sealing off the cooking area so rain, dust, rats, mice, and other rodents cannot access the food storage areas, and the kept utensils and lastly covering the food when cooking, wearing protective gear and fumigating the food preparation areas to kill cockroaches and other insects that fall in food. The researcher recommends that in order to improve the cooking practices, foreign bodies in the food especially hair pieces like braids and natural hair, peelings of food, Flies, small cockroaches and other insects, and threads should be catered for through the covering of food when cooking, and covering their hair bystreet food vendors. Chipped plates, cups and glasses with cracks, and are stained and changed in color that really irritate the customers should not be used to serve food but thrown away.

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Author: kasozi muhammadi
Contributed by: asbat digital library
Institution: nkumba university
Level: university
Sublevel: under-graduate
Type: dissertations