Theme 02Food Safety & Quality
Microbial safety of street-vended foods in urban Kampala
Dr. Ronald Ssebugere·Lecturer, Food Microbiology·October 30, 2025·9 min read
A twelve-month microbiological surveillance of Kampala’s informal food economy — and what it means for regulation.
Kampala's street food economy feeds hundreds of thousands of workers every day. It also operates almost entirely outside formal food-safety inspection.
What we sampled
Over twelve months we tested 1,240 ready-to-eat food samples from five divisions of the city for indicator organisms and priority pathogens.
The regulatory case
Rather than punitive shutdowns, our data supports a graduated model — combining vendor training, shared handwashing infrastructure and light-touch monitoring — as the most cost-effective route to safer streets.
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