Quality Evaluation of Street Vended Snacks in Umuahia Town

Despite positive aspects of street foods on the economy and culinary diversity, street food vending business has attracted serious doubts concerning their position in food safety management, overall food quality, and safe environmental practices especially snacks. Hence the need for quality evaluation of street vended snacks in Umuahia town which would assist policymakers and help customers to make the best choice. Street vended snacks, buns, puff-puff and fish roll, were randomly purchased from different locations in Umuahia town and analysed for their proximate composition, physical, oxidative and sensory properties. The results obtained revealed that the proximate composition ranges from 15.45-26.45%, 1.15-1.53%, 0.55-0.95%, 12.13-18.27%, 4.30-12.69%, 49.30-58.09% and 367.07-405.98 Kcal for moisture, total ash, crude fibre, total fat, crude protein, carbohydrate and energy value respectively. Although the snacks samples were high in energy, the low fibre content could be a source of concern if excessively consumed. The physical properties ranged from 2.05-7.00 cm, 3.00-7.05 cm, 2.15-4.90 cm and 8.28-33.79 g for height, length, width and weight respectively. Moreover, the samples were mostly high in oxidative properties probably due to staling or use of rancid oil during processing. It ranges from 1.41-3.20 mgKOH/g fat/oil for acid value, 9.65-15.75 meqO2/kg for peroxide value and 0.47-1.06 mg/MDA/kg for thiobarbituric acid reactive substance. There was generally no significant difference (P>0.05) in the sensory properties of the snacks with values ranging from 6.75-7.00, 6.60-6.95, 6.35-6.55, 6.40-7.00 and 6.65-7.40 for appearance, aroma, texture, taste and general acceptability. Although buns, puff-puff and fish roll are popular street vended snacks in Umuahia town, care must be taken to ensure their quality for consumption