A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess Street Food Vendors' Adherence to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in an Urban Slum of Pune, India.

Background Street food is widespread in low- and middle-income countries like India, offering nutrition and jobs to many. Being in the informal sector can also pose foodborne illness risks due to limited access to clean water, sanitary facilities, and food safety knowledge. A cross-sectional study can identify the prevalence of unsafe practices and provide a snapshot of the current state of food safety and hygiene practices among street vendors. To prevent such outbreaks, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) established standards for street food vendors under the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006. Method This cross-sectional study aims to assess the conformance of street food vendors with the BIS requirements for food safety and various factors affecting the same, assuming that 50% of street food vendors would conform to the requirements. The prevalence was assumed to be 50% as no study was available for reference for conformance with the BIS requirements. With a precision of 10% on either side of the truth and with 95% confidence to estimate the proportion of street vendors conforming with the BIS requirements, a sample size of 97 was calculated. The street food vendors operational in the area were listed in an urban slum of Pune in Maharashtra, and 100 among them were selected through a computer-generated random number table. A questionnaire based on the BIS was developed, with a minimum score of 0 and a maximum score of 114. The investigator interviewed each vendor for 45-60 minutes using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was validated by conducting a pilot study in the same area with a sample size of 20 vendors.  Results The vendors' scores were evaluated against various demographic variables, including age, experience, education, place of residence, and monthly income. The data collected was analyzed for descriptives, and categorical data was analyzed using Chi-square and Fisher's exact statistical tests using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20 (Released 2011; IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). The mean age of the vendors was 30.5 ± 8.06 years, with an average experience of 4.87 ± 2.93 years. The average monthly income of the vendors was Rs 6004 ± 3179, and the majority of vendors were males (95%). Of the vendors, 64% scored satisfactory, with an overall score of ≥50%. The vendors' mean score was 60.2 ± 13.9. Reasons for the poor score were related to waste disposal techniques, availability of ample water for various activities, facilities for refrigeration, proper usage of gloves, pest control activities, and lack of formal training. The study observed a significant relationship between place of residence and overall score (p = 0.002) and between monthly income and overall score (p = 0.023).  Conclusion The street food industry plays a vital role in meeting people's food requirements and the nation's economic structure, employing many people. Providing safe and hygienic street food to consumers is an important aspect of the industry, and various factors interplay in its complex mechanism. In this study, waste disposal, pest control, and lack of training were important factors causing low scores for street food. These factors can be rectified by the coming together of municipal bodies to provide earmarked locations, training and waste disposal facilities, water and electricity department, health department for regular hygiene inspections, and law enforcement department to implement the above points.