Indian Street Food Safety 1 2 Prachi Marwaha *, Smita Pathak , Alpana 3 Singh 1 Department of Home Science, K. S. College, A constituent college of Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga, Bihar, India 2 Government M. H. College of Home Science and Science for women, Jabalpur, 482001(MP). 3 Department of Food Science and Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru Agriculture University, Jabalpur, 482004 (M.P.), India Key words: Ethnobotanical, Pharmacological, Indian saffron, Curcumin REVIEW ARTICLE Vol. 09(1):48-51 Year 2022 ambient SCIENCE Ambient Science, 2022: Vol. 09(1); 48-51 DOI:10.21276/ambi.2022.09.1.rv02 Abstract Introduction: A major determinant of health is the consumption of wholesome food. Wholesome has two important dimensions firstly, the food should be of good nutritive value secondly and equally important is that the food should be free from contamination of toxic agents and noxious substances that would weaken the health and cause foodborne diseases. Ensuring food safety is, therefore, an important cornerstone in maintaining health (https://www.nutritionfoundationofindia.res.in). Food is the most fundamental need of human beings. Zero hunger has been identified as one of the sustainable development goals to transform the world. The availability of food is not enough, but the available food must be safe and free from pathogens so that it can serve its purpose of growth and development. Food is the only nutritive when it is pure, fresh and free from hazardous matter such as pathogenic bacteria. Infected food or contaminated food cause danger to health and impair quality of life. Considering this crucial point, in 2015, World Health Organization has kept their theme on food safety i.e. from farm to plate-make food safe. World Health Organization has also given five keys for safer food viz. as keeping clean, separating raw and cooked food, cooking food thoroughly; keeping food at safe temperatures, use water and raw materials (WHO, 2015). It is a practical guide for all the food handlers including vendors and consumers. In India, tremendous economic growth is taking place. One outcome of this is that “eating out” has become an important part of daily life, especially in urban areas (Kashyap et al., 2004). This is leading to the rapid growth of street foods. Street foods offer several varieties of foodstuffs that are fresh, tasty, quickly readily available at a reasonable price. Streets foods have a wide range of “ready to eat” food and beverages prepared and sold by vendors and hawkers, especially in the street and other similar public places (FAO, 2011). Street foods play an important role in sustaining the 0culture, social heritage of societies and are an essential component for maintaining the nutritional status of the population (Rane, 2011). According to the national policy for urban street food vendors (http://www.nasvinet.org), in India total number of street vendors is estimated at around 10 million. Some studies also estimated that street vendors constitute approximately 2% of the population of a metropolis, this number is likely to increase further. India is a country where each city boasts its own unique street food and a large percentage of the population relishes these delicacies. The most popular street food in India is shown in Table-1. Street foods are popular because of their unique flavour, variety, inexpensiveness, convenience and India is famous for its street food and each city of India has its own unique street food and a massive percentage of the population relishes these delicacies. Food is only nutritive nutritious when is pure, fresh and free from hazardous matter such as pathogenic bacteria. Infected food or contaminated foods cause danger to health and impair quality of life. Food safety of street food has always been a matter of concern because consumption of these roadside foods has been suggested/reported to potentially increase the risk of foodborne diseases as street foods are readily contaminated from different sources like traditional processing methods that are used in the preparation, inappropriate holding and poor personal hygiene of food handlers are some of the main cause of contamination of street-vended foods. Thus there is emerging needs like provision of health education to the vendors and enforcing implementation of appropriate hygienic practice as control preventive measure to improve the microbial quality of street foods. *Corresponding Auth or: ISSN- 2348 5191 (Print) & 2348 8980 (Electronic)