Street foods like chotpoti, chola-muri, sandwiches, sugarcane juice, aloe vera juice, and mixed salad in Dhaka contain harmful bacteria, a recent study reveals.

A seminar took place on Sunday at the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) conference room showing how researchers found E. coli, Salmonella, and Vibrio bacteria in popular street foods.

Latiful Bari, head of the Food Nutrition and Agriculture Research Laboratory at the University of Dhaka, presented these findings.

The study shows alarming bacterial levels in these foods. Each plate of chotpoti has an average of 72 million E. coli, 750 Salmonella, and 750 Vibrio bacteria. Chola-muri contains 740,000 E. coli, 2,000 Salmonella, and 3 million Vibrio bacteria. Sandwiches have 2,000 E. coli, 2,000 Salmonella, and 1.6 million Vibrio bacteria. Sugarcane juice contains 65,000 E. coli, 17,000 Salmonella, and 13,000 Vibrio bacteria. Aloe vera juice has 56,000 E. coli, 1.8 million Salmonella, and 14,000 Vibrio bacteria. Mixed salad contains 1,800 E. coli, 510 Salmonella, and 300 Vibrio bacteria.

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These bacteria cause various stomach diseases, including diarrhea. The study indicates that out of every 10,000 people consuming these street foods, two get sick from E. coli, four from Salmonella, and one from Vibrio bacteria.

Researchers collected 450 samples from street food vendors in 37 regions of Dhaka North and South City Corporation. Contaminated water, dirty towels, unclean hands, and dusty environments contribute to these germs entering the food.

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Latiful Bari said, "The lack of health and sanitation knowledge among vendors is a significant issue."

He emphasised the need for training vendors and conducting daily monitoring to ensure food safety.