The street foods play an important socioeconomic role in meeting food and nutritional requirements of city consumers at affordable prices to the lower and middle income people. The number of food poisoning notifications rose steadily worldwide since the inception of E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the 1980s to date. This may be partly attributed to improved surveillance, increased global trade and travel, changes in modern food production, the impact of modern lifestyles, changes in food consumption, and the emergence of new pathogens. Consumer's knowledge and attitude may influence food safety behavior and practice. For the sake of public health, it is important to understand the epidemiology of foodborne illnesses that help in prevention and control efforts, appropriately allocating resources to control foodborne illness, monitoring and evaluation of food safety measures, development of new food safety standards, and assessment of the cost-effectiveness of interventions. This review paper described the sociodemographic characteristics, common hazards, and occupational hazards of street food vendors, microbial risk associated with street food, food safety interventions and control measures, regulatory aspects and legal requirements, financial constraints, and attitudes.

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A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of electrolyzed acidic water, 200-ppm chlorine water, and sterile distilled water in killing Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes on the surfaces of spot-inoculated tomatoes. Inoculated tomatoes were sprayed with electrolyzed acidic water, 200-ppm chlorine water, and sterile distilled water (control) and rubbed by hand for 40 s. Populations of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and L. monocytogenes in the rinse water and in the peptone wash solution were determined. Treatment with 200-ppm chlorine water and electrolyzed acidic water resulted in 4.87- and 7.85-log10 reductions, respectively, in Escherichia coli O157:H7 counts and 4.69- and 7.46-log10 reductions, respectively, in Salmonella counts. Treatment with 200-ppm chlorine water and electrolyzed acidic water reduced the number of L. monocytogenes by 4.76 and 7.54 log10 CFU per tomato, respectively. This study's findings suggest that electrolyzed acidic water could be useful in controlling pathogenic microorganisms on fresh produce.

The inability of chlorine to completely inactivate human bacterial pathogens on whole and fresh-cut produce suggests a need for other antimicrobial washing treatments. Nisin (50 microg/ml) and pediocin (100 AU/ml) individually or in combination with sodium lactate (2%), potassium sorbate (0.02%), phytic acid (0.02%), and citric acid (10 mM) were tested as possible sanitizer treatments for reducing the population of Listeria monocytogenes on cabbage, broccoli, and mung bean sprouts. Cabbage, broccoli, and mung bean sprouts were inoculated with a five-strain cocktail of L. monocytogenes at 4.61, 4.34, and 4.67 log CFU/g, respectively. Inoculated produce was left at room temperature (25 degrees C) for up to 4 h before antimicrobial treatment. Washing treatments were applied to inoculated produce for 1 min, and surviving bacterial populations were determined. When tested alone, all compounds resulted in 2.20- to 4.35-log reductions of L. monocytogenes on mung bean, cabbage, and broccoli, respectively. The combination treatments nisin-phytic acid and nisin-pediocin-phytic acid caused significant (P < 0.05) reductions of L. monocytogenes on cabbage and broccoli but not on mung bean sprouts. Pediocin treatment alone or in combination with any of the organic acid tested was more effective in reducing L. monocytogenes populations than the nisin treatment alone. Although none of the combination treatments completely eliminated the pathogen on the produce, the results suggest that some of the treatments evaluated in this study can be used to improve the microbial safety of fresh-cut cabbage, broccoli, and mung bean sprouts.

Yersinia enterocolitica are ubiquitous, being isolated frequently from soil, water, animals, and a variety of foods. They comprise a biochemically heterogeneous group that can survive and grow at refrigeration temperatures. The ability to propagate at refrigeration temperatures is of considerable significance in food hygiene. Virulent strains of Yersinia invade mammalian cells such as HeLa cells in tissue culture. Two chromosomal genes, inv and ail, were identified for cell invasion of mammalian. The pathogen can cause diarrhoea, appendicitis and post-infection arthritis may occur in a small proportion of cases. The most common transmission route of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica is thought to be fecal-oral via contaminated food. Direct person-to-person contact is rare. Occasionally, pathogenic Y. enterocolitica has been detected in vegetables and environmental water; thus, vegetables and untreated water are also potential sources of human yersiniosis. However, the isolation rates of pathogenic Y. enterocolitica have been low, which may be due to the limited sensitivity of the detection methods. To identify other possible transmission vehicles, different food items should be studied more extensively. Many factors related to the epidemiology of Y. enterocolitica, such as sources, transmission routes, and predominating genotypes remain obscure because of the low sensitivity of detection methods.