Improving food safety of informally vended foods in Southern Africa

Duration of project: 1st February 2003 to 31st December 2004
This project is jointly managed by the Natural Resources Institute (NRI), UK, National Institute for Scientific & Industrial Research (NISIR), Zambia, and City Health Department (CHD), Zimbabwe. It is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) Crops Post Harvest Programme (CPHP).

Project summary and outputs

Informal food vending is illegal in Zambia and Zimbabwe, unlicensed vendors are excluded from government support, and chased away from vending sites. However, economic decline, rapid urbanization, high unemployment and the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic have resulted in a dramatic increase in illegal food sellers, and recognition by governments of both countries of the need for different approaches to the issue of food sold on the streets. The overall objectives of the work are to improve the safety of informally traded food consumed by low-income groups, and improve access to income through informally vended food for urban poor in Harare and Lusaka.

Prior to the project little was known about the status of the informal food vending sector in Lusaka or Harare making it difficult to convince policy makers and implementing agencies of the importance of the sector either in terms of public health issues or contribution to livelihoods. This project established vending of cooked food is well established in Lusaka with 5,355 vendors operating around the city. Harsh economic conditions in Harare have made cooked food vending a growth industry, with 1,100 vendors around the city. Cooked food vending was found to provide a major source of employment, income and nutritional intake for the urban poor in Lusaka. Collectively the vendors employ over 16,000 people, serve more than 81 million meals of nshima and beef stew per year, and make an annual profit of approximately £5.5 million pounds. Individual profits are highly variable with some vendors making as little as £0.1 per day, while the most successful businesses can make as much as £17 per day. Cooked food vending is of vital importance for female headed households in both cities with over 80% of vendors being female household heads and 60% of these had no other source of household income.

Some markets have only one tap for a market of 15,000 stalls.

Monitoring of microbiological parameters from vending sites over an 18 month period, revealed that high rainfall in summer increases the risk of transmission of disease through contaminated water and generally poor sanitation. Meat stew represented the highest risk to health with 1.6% samples containing significant levels of Salmonella spp and 14.6% of samples being contaminated with Bacillus cereus. Water used by vendors often had quite high bacterial counts (103-107CFU/ml) but faecal contamination was only detected in 1.2% of samples analysed. Monitoring of vendors hands and preparation and serving utensils by swabs revealed very little evidence of faecal contamination (E.coli detected on 0.6% and 1.2% of hand and utensil swabs respectively). However, presumptive enterotoxigenic Staphylococcus aureus were detected in 17.6% and 18.6% of hand and utensil swabs respectively.

Some markets have no drainage or floor and only two toilets for 15,000 stalls of all types. Here a customer sits next to an open channel of stagnant water and refuse.

A training package for environmental health officers dealing with positive approaches to ensuring the safety of informally vended food was developed jointly by Zimbabwe and Zambia and used to train a total of 20 environmental health officers. The course placed heavy emphasis on getting health officials to move towards identification of problems and solutions at vending sites, and positive approaches to working with vendors.

In Zambia, new partnerships were developed between those involved in vending and the supporting institutions. Data collected by the project enabled the Minister of Health to take the decision to temporarily close the cooked food section of Soweto market early in the wet season of 2004, and to implement project recommendations that reduced the impact of the annual cholera outbreak and allowed the market to re-open. In Lusaka and Harare a total of 102 informal food vendors received training on food safety. Vendors became highly motivated and have taken steps not only to improve their own operations but also to pass on information to other vendors.

Clean well kept stall at Luburma market; all food items are kept covered and surfaces are clean.

Coalition partnership in UK, Zambia and Zimbabwe:

United Kingdom

• Natural Resources Institute, The University of Greenwich at Medway, (Dr Andrew Graffham - a.j.graffham@gre.ac.uk)

Zambia:

• National Institute for Scientific & Industrial Research (Dr Rodah M. Zulu rmzulu@zamnet.zm)
• Central Board of Health; (Mr F. Nyirenda, Environmental Health Specialist - fnyirenda@cboh.org.zm)
• Food and Drugs Control Laboratory, Ministry of Health , PO Box: 310138, Lusaka, Zambia. (Mrs Margaret Mazhamo, Head, FDCL)
• Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry; (Mr Boniface Kunda, e-mail: comtrade@zamnet.zm & bkunda@mcti.gov.zm)
• Provincial Health Office , Lusaka Province /Lusaka City Council, PO Box 37136, Ministry of Health, Lusaka (Mrs Christabel Malijani)
• World Health Organization, Lusaka, (Mr M. Musambo, mmusambo@who.org.zm)

Zimbabwe:

• City Health Department, Harare (Mr Dombo Chibanda - hcchd@hararecity.co.zw)
• Government Analyst Laboratory, Harare, Zimbabwe (Mrs Pauline Zhindi)
• Institute of Food and Nutritional Studies, University of Zimbabwe (Dr Tony Mutukumira - tony.mutukumira@science.uz.ac.zw & Dr T. Henry Gadaga - tgadaga@hotmail.com & gadaga@science.uz.ac.zw)
• Kutsaga Research Station (KRS), Harare (Mr Oswell-Mharapara, oswell_mharapara@kutsaga.co.zw)
• SADC Food Security and Rural Development Hub (SADC), Harare (Ms M. Mupotola, SPS Specialist, e-mail: mmupotola@sadchub.org)
• World Health Organization (WHO), Harare (Dr E. K. Njelesanie -njelesanie@who.co.zw)