Vinod Kotwal, Prof. Santosh Satya and Prof. S.N. Naik

Street foods are ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors and hawkers especially in streets and other similar public places. Street food vendors may be stationary, semi-mobile or mobile. This food sector plays a significant role in providing livelihood to millions of street food vendors, meeting the nutritional requirement of a large section of the society; However there have been concerns associated with the safety of street food primarily due to poor hygiene practices adopted by the street food vendors, lack of potable water, waste disposal facilities and the location of their carts. In India, petty manufacturers including street food vendors have to be registered under the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration of Food Businesses) Regulation 2011 and to comply with the sanitary and hygiene requirements that have both controllable and non-controllable requirements. Most of the studies on street food vendors have focused on urban setting, the status in rural areas not given much attention. Thus, in a marked departure from conventional studies, present investigation compares the food safety and hygiene practices amongst urban as well as rural vendors. Based on a survey of 300 vendors in urban Delhi and rural areas of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (around Delhi) it was observed that in both the milieus street food vendors do not vary too much in their personal hygiene practices. But do so in regulatory compliances, garbage collection, garbage disposal practices, and other environmental factors. A triangular collaborative approach focusing on different stakeholders can improve the safety and quality of street-vended food.