Consumption Behavior of Street Foods among the Young Consumers and Microbial Assessment of Street Food in Dhaka City

Abstract

Street foods are widely consumed all over the world as well as Dhaka city. To determine the preferences for these foods, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 645 individuals constituted by randomly selected high school and university students. Also, samples were examined to identify the presence of microorganisms to detect contamination. Of the participants, 40% were male and 60% were female; the majority of them were between 19 and 22 years of age. It was found that 15.81% of the young people conjume street food 2-3 times per week, whereas 48.37% were found to have it every day. Shingara (n = 411, 63.72%), Samucha (n = 267, 41.40%), Puri (n = 225, 34.88%), and Fuchka (n = 216, 33.48%) are the most preferred street foods among young people. In microbial assessment, velpuri had the highest amount of Staphylococcus spp. (5.3 x 105 c.f.u. per gm), fuchka contained the highest amount of Salmonella spp. (4.1 x 105 c.f.u. per gm) and jhalmuri had the highest number of E. coli (4.0 x 104 c.f.u. per gm). Consumers prefer street food because of their low cost, varieties, taste, availability and fast service. The results of our study indicated that most of the Ready to Eat (RTE) food samples tested did not meet bacteriological quality standards. Young people frequently consume the street foods in Dhaka city. To prevent food poisoning and other microbial diseases they should be educated about food hygiene and safety. The contamination risk can be minimized by providing knowledge about personal hygiene and good manufacture practice to the vendors. Bangladesh J Microbiol, Volume 37 Number 1 June 2020, pp 29-34