Physicochemical and microbiological assessment of street foods in Batangas City [Philippines]

Food safety awareness is very important, especially these days that people are experiencing food poisoning and food borne illnesses locally and abroad. In the Philippines food poisoning incidents are increasing however, street foods is still a thriving business because it gives income to people. This study mainly aimed to determine the properties of street foods in terms of Physicochemical property and Microbial properties (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus) taken from the five sampling stations such as in the market, near Batangas State University and near schools/universities and during the two sampling periods such as rainy season and during summer. It also aimed to make a food safety plan and recommendations in handling street foods. Street food samples included in this study were kwek kwek, fish ball, and kikiam and also the two types of sauces, such as sweet sauce and spicy sauce. RCBD was used and ANOVA was employed in this study. Among the samples fishball had the highest value in terms of crude fat and ash content, while kikiam had the highest value in terms of crude protein. Both the sweet sauce and spicy sauce have the lowest crude fiber, crude protein and ash content but the, highest in terms of moisture content. It can be noted that street foods such and the two kinds of sauces in five sampling stations in Batangas City have microbial load which was beyond the Philippine National Standard. The spicy sauce obtained a high value of microbial load almost in all stations except in station 3 with the value of less 10 CFU/g. Station 2 has been found to have the highest Staphylococcus aureus and E.coli while, station 1 showed lowest presence of Staphylococcus aureus in most samples. Based on the results of the study, it is recommended that street foods vendor get proper food safety training and practice for preparing good quality foods. Vendors need to be aware of hygienic, sanitary, and technological aspects of street food vending and consumption. Training and education on these issues should be carried out to help street vendors. Moreover, it was observed that there was an increased rate of microbial load during the dry season as compared with the wet season.