Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Floating Food Vendors in Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Thailand Sudarin Rodmanee Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan E-Mail:
[email protected] Srayut Tongnoy Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan E-Mail:
[email protected] Wen-Chi Huang Department of Agribusiness Management Joint Appointment with Department of Tropical Agriculture and International Cooperation National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan E-Mail:
[email protected] Abstract I. INTRODUCTION Food hygiene knowledge and practices Damnoen Saduak Floating Market is one of floating food vendors in Damnoen of the famous and attractive places to see Saduak Floating Market was investigat ed. traditional way of food and goods trade in Data was collected from thirty Thailand. It is located at Damnoen Saduak vendors using a structured District, Ratchaburi Province. Like other questionnaire and an observational floating markets checklist. Few (10%) vendors acquired the In Thailand, food is definitely one of the knowledge of food safety by highlights of a trip to Damnoen Saduak formal training. The results suggest that Floating Market. although most floating food vendors have The major advantage of being floating knowledge of some aspects of food safety and food vendors is the accessibility to the practices, several gaps remain, posing a buyer. On the other hand, hygiene is the serious health hazard to consumers. The main weak point due to several factors such problems were the infrequency of hand as trading features, characteristics of the washing, the storage of cooked food foods sold and hygiene surveillance, which uncovered and the accumulation of waste increase concerns about the safety of vended near the point-of-sale.