Public Health challenges associated with street-vended foods and medicines in a developing country: A mini-review

Abstract

The steady growth of urban population has necessitated the proliferation of wayside food and medicines vendors. These vendors include a large population of individuals with very little or no knowledge and training on basic food safety and drug matters. They are neither properly trained nor fully aware of the serious health dangers posed by microbial contamination of their wares. Therefore, from place of preparation to roadsides where the foods are sold, the chances of contamination by pathogens are significantly high. Some of these street vended foods and medicines are ready-to-eat salads, vegetables, fruits, cooked foods, herbal remedies and concoctions, which can be consumed directly from the point of purchase. Poor hygiene at the point of preparation is sufficient to cause food borne outbreak of epidemiological significance while the medicines innumerable health consequences and consequent public health challenge. Poor storage system and frequent unhygienic exposure of prepared vegetable salads and medicines add to their microbial load. Some of the communities in developing countries do not have good sources of portable water for the preparation of these vital life products. It is not unlikely that some of these products are prepared with faecally contaminated water taken from local ponds and open streams. Daily interactions with Escherichia coli, Shigella spp and Salmonella spp which cause diarrhoea, dysentery and other serious gastrointestinal disturbances have been adequately documented. The target of this review is to highlight major public health concerns associated with foods and medicines vended in Nigeria, a developing country.