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. 2018 Dec 10;15(12):2807.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph15122807.

Who Is Serving Us? Food Safety Rules Compliance Among Brazilian Food Truck Vendors

Lígia Isoni Auad  1 , Verônica Cortez Ginani  2 , Eliana Dos Santos Leandro  3 , Aline Costa Santos Nunes  4 , Luiz Roberto Pires Domingues Junior  5 , Renata Puppin Zandonadi  6
Affiliations

Who Is Serving Us? Food Safety Rules Compliance Among Brazilian Food Truck Vendors

Lígia Isoni Auad et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The rise of food trucks as an eating out option requires knowledge of this sector. Balancing the reality of the food truck sector with access to safe food should guide actions and public policies to cater to its peculiarities. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize the Brazilian food truck vendors' profile regarding their socioeconomic status and compliance with food safety rules. From the 118 food truck vendors registered in the Brazilian Federal District, 30% (n = 35) participated in the study. We conducted structured interviews from December 2017 to April 2018. We ranked compliance levels according to a five-point Likert scale based on calculated compliance scores. The interviews revealed that food truck vendors were mostly married males, who had completed at least a tertiary education level, and wanted to start up their own businesses. The compliance levels depict good compliance with food safety rules (overall compliance (OC)-score = 0.69, on a 0 to 1 scale). The food trucks assessed in this study distinguished themselves from the street food and food retail sectors due to their operational structure and the complexity of food production processes. Those particular features should be considered to ensure adequate and effective sanitary control and inspections, as well as to reduce the probability of microbial growth and food contamination and the consequent risk of foodborne illnesses.

Keywords: Brazil; food safety; food truck; vendor.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual framework of the study.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Compliance scores of food safety rules.
Figure 3
Figure 3
National and local legislation of food trucks in the Brazilian Federal District. Anvisa: Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (National Health Surveillance Agency); DF: Distrito Federal (Federal District); FTVs: food truck vendors.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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