A Survey on the Sanitary Condition of Foods and Water of Street Food Carts

포장마차 음식의 위생 실태 조사연구

The number of covered carts selling snack foods along the streets are increasing in Korea and people enjoy eating foods at these carts. However there are only a few reports on the contamination or sanitary condition of the food carts. This study was performed to investigate the sanitary condition of food and water at the street food carts in the eight major areas of a city. Water and several kinds of food, kimbop(laver rollers) ddeokbokki(stir fried rice cake in hot pepper paste) oemuk(fish cakes) fish cake soup, and soy sauce were collected from four street carts from each of the 8 areas from June to August in 2001 The standard plate counts(SPCs) and coliform groups were examined according to the Food Code of Korea. The nufitness rates of SPCs of the samples were 0~15.6%: 15.6% in kimbop:6.3% in fish cake soup; and 3.1% in water samples SPCs were not detected in some samples. of ddeokbokki, oemuk and soy sauce. The unfitness rates of coliform groups were 0~62.5%; 46.9% in kimbop; 6.3% in ddeokbokki,;22.9% in oemuk 62.5% in fish cake soup; and 3.1% in soy sauce. Coliform groups were not detected in water sample The numbers and unfitness rates of SPCs and coliform groups showed increasing tendencies over time within a day. The higher the air temperature was the more increase of bacteriological growth was observed These results indicate that the level of bacteriological contamination of foods and water in the street carts should be monitored and strict inspection is necessary. There should be legal consequences for serving contaminated food to the public.