Better lives through livestock
Overview of quantitative knowledge, attitude and practice of tomato
traders on tomato hygiene and safety in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso
Biruk Alemu Gemeda1, Kebede Amenu2, Lina Mego1, Michel Dione3, Guy Ilboudo3, Valérie Raymonde Lallogo3,
Sisay Girma4, Kemal Kasim4, Mukerem Taha4 and Theodore Knight-Jones1
1ILRI Ethiopia, 2Addis Ababa University, 3ILRI Burkina Faso, 4Haramaya University
Project webinar
12 July 2021

2
Introduction
Methodology
Results (Ethiopia and Burkina Faso)
• Demography and tomato market characteristics (Only Ethiopia)
• Tomato damage, cause and seasonality
• Wastage/losses of tomatoes
• Tomato transaction
• Tomato handling and storage practice
• Tomato safety and hygiene (knowledge, attitude and practice, KAP)
• Influence of COVID on tomato market actor’s food safety practices
(only Ethiopia)
• Perception toward tomato safety and hygiene interventions (only
Ethiopia)
Outline

3
Introduction
Food safety and hygiene
• Contamination and foodborne diseases (FBD)
• FBD:
 mostly associated with animal source food and
vegetables
 excessively affect urban community- complexity of the
food value chains
• Tomato - selected commodity with potential food
safety risk
• Quantitative evidence of tomato safety and hygiene
is lacking that correspond with control measures

4
The study aimed to assess KAP
in tomato hygiene and safety,
among different market actors
(traders) involved in tomato
retail marketing activity

5
Methodology
KAP survey tool
• Set up in Open Data Kit (ODK) on mobile
tablet devices in three sections for each
questionnaire set:
1. Background and demographic data,
2. Tomato handling practice and observation
during marketing
3. Food safety knowledge and perception.
• Standardized questionnaire: tomato
handling, marketing, loss due to damage,
safety and hygienic practice, influence of
COVID-19 on tomato market actors’
perceptions towards tomato food safety
intervention.

6
Methodology….cont.
Study design and sampling
• Cross-sectional
• Sampling frame of 1498 retailers representing all the tomato retail
market outlets - value chain assessment and mapping
• 151 outlets were randomly selected without stratification
providing a representative sample

7
Methodology….cont.
Sampling
Number of tomato outlets in sampling frame by type and city
Dire Dawa Harar Total
Retailers in market 215 171 386 (26%)
Stalls in the vicinity of market 419 273 692 (46%)
Street venders not in market 214 74 288 (19%)
Formal shop 54 78 132 (9%)
Total 902 (60%) 596 (40%) 1498 (100%)
Number of tomato outlets sampled by type and city (note proportions in the outlet types are
similar to the sampling frame)
Dire Dawa Harar Total
Market retail 19 17 36 (24%)
Stalls in the vicinity of market 32 27 59 (39%)
Street venders not in market 32 6 38 (25%)
Formal shop 6 12 18 (12%)
Total 89 (59%) 62 (41%) 151(100%)

8
Methodology….cont.
Type of retail market outlets
Retailers in a market: large retailers
having stall in the main tomato market
and supply in bulk using crates and
cardboard box.
Stalls in the vicinity of market: fixed
establishments in the vicinity of the
main market where retailers who own
the stall sell tomato.
Retailers in a market, Deker, Harar
Stalls in the vicinity of market, Dire Dawa and Harar

9
Methodology….cont.
Street venders are not in or by a
market: They sell tomatoes in public
spaces special roadsides offering
easy access to customers.
Formal shops: are those retail
outlets where a wide range of
goods including tomato are
offered for sell in a fixed
establishment.
Street vendors in the street of Harar
Formal shop in Harar

10
Methodology…..cont.
Quantitative knowledge, attitude and practice survey in the
field/data collection
• Experienced enumerators at Haramaya University were recruited
and trained
• The questionnaire was piloted with 12 respondents as a first step
of validating the tool
• The different outlets were traced back following the GPS of the
points recorded in the value chain mapping
• For those retailers in the big markets, stall in the vicinity of market
and street vendors, a transect walk was followed

11
Methodology…..cont.
Data Management and Analysis
• Used STATA version 16
• Descriptive analysis
• Data were presented using tables (frequencies and percentages),
and box plot, pie charts and bar charts
• Categorical data were analysed using Chi-square tests
• Quantitative data using t-tests and one-way ANOVA considering
means and standard deviations comparing different locations and
type of outlet

12
Results - Demography and tomato market characteristics
• Only 7% of the respondents reported
to be hired workers/employees of the
retailer
• Most of the respondents were female
• Tomato marketing is being done by
adult individuals with an average age
of 33 years
• Most tomato traders sold different
types of vegetables (96%) and a few
also sold fruit

13
Results…..Cont.
Most of the respondents did
not sell live animals but 18.5%
of outlets sold live chickens
Tomato and live chicken sold very close,
Arategna, Harar
Sheep and goats are the major
animal species roaming at the
marketplace (~50%)
Sheep roaming around vegetable market in
Dire Dawa and Harar

14
Results…..Cont.
Source of tomatoes for different tomato market outlets, Ethiopia
Wholesale Producer Small
market
Local
middleman
Middleman
(>100km)
Market Outlet type n % n % n % n % n %
Retailer in market (n=36) 21 58.3 1 2.78 0 6 16.7 7 19.4
Stall in vicinity of market
(n=59)
22 37.3 0 0 5 8.5 22 37.3 3 5.1
Street venders/Roadside stall
not in or by market (n=38)
13 34.2 0 0 4 10.5 22 57.9* 0 0
Formal shop (n=18) 13 72.2* 0 0 1 5.6 5 27.8 0 0
* significant at P=0.05

15
Results - amount of tomato damage, causes and seasonality
• On average 5% become
damaged whilst they have
them, for every X units of
undamaged tomatoes
• No significant difference by
outlet type but highest for
retailers in the market (7%) and
lowest for stall in the vicinity of
market (4%)
• Significantly higher in Harar
(6.2%) than Dire Dawa (4.7%)
Amount of damaged tomato
Percentage of damaged tomatoes per each tomato
retail outlet in Hara and Dire Dawa

16
Results…..cont.
Wastage/losses of tomatoes
• On average 4.4% was lost for various
reasons
• Average losses were greatest for street
vendors with 6% discarded, no significant
difference in percentage of tomatoes
losses across outlet type and location
• Thrown to garbage (70%), fed to livestock
(35%) and 10% eaten by people

17
Result…cont.
Causes of tomato
damage
• Causes of damage
varied significantly
among outlets types
and study location
33.3
32.2
7.9
5.6
23.2
16.7
27.1
36.8
44.4
29.1
11.1
13.5
47.4
22.2
22.5
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Retailer in…
Stall in vicinity…
Street venders
Formal shop
Total
susceptible to damage when purchased damaged during transport
pests kept for too long
kept at high temperature don’t know
other (Harvesting during wet)

18
Results…..cont.
Main cause of damage
for tomato in Harar and
Dire Dawa

19
Results…..Cont.
48.3
62.3
78.9
65.8
26.3
11.4
15.8 15.8
2.6 3.5
21.1
24.6
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
When do you sell more
damaged tomatoes?
Season of more damaged
tomatoes sold
In which months do you sell
more tomatoes?
Season of more tomato sale
over the year
Seasonality of
tomato sale

20
Results - Tomato transaction
• The quantity of tomato
sales per day varied for
each outlet type and
location
• Tomato traders sort
and sell different
quality/price grades of
tomatoes
The minimum and maximum quantity of tomato sold per day in
different tomato market outlets and location

21
Results…..cont.
Proportion of tomatoes sold as grade 1 tomatoes for different
outlets
Typical grade 1 tomato sold in Harar
market
• The reported proportion of grade 1 tomatoes
(high quality grade) sold was similar for
different tomato market outlets

22
Results - Tomato handling and storage practice
Type of tomato containers

23
Results…..cont.
Min and max number of days between when they receive
an intact tomato to when they sell it by market outlet (H-
Harar; D-Dire Dawa)
• It is relatively longer in formal
shops compared to other
outlets (Max - mean=8 days
and p50=6 days, Min - mean=
4 days and p50= 2 days)

24
Results…..cont.
Practice of sorting tomato
among different market outlets
• 50% of street vendors did not
practice sorting

25
Results…..cont.
4.9
11.7
8.7
27.2
35.1
51.7
13.6
13.6
15.5
1.3
23.2
19.9
27.2
24.3
40.8
6.6
3.9
40.8
14.6
17.5
0.7
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%
Sort tomatoes according to quality when you
sell them
Sort tomatoes according to quality when you
transport them to storage or to customers
Sort tomatoes according to quality when
stored
Do tomatoes become damaged when they are
being taken or transported to storage?
In storage are tomatoes exposed to flies
In storage are they exposed to animals/rodents
NA Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
• Only 5% do not practice
sorting when they sell
tomato.
• Higher proportion of
respondents also
reported practice of
sorting during transport
and storage.
• About 31% and 25 % of
respondents self-
reported that tomatoes
are exposed to flies and
rodents in the storage
with varying degree of
exposure

26
Results…..cont.
41.7
84.7 86.8
27.8
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Retailers Stall in the
vicinity of
market
Street vendors Formal shops
No Yes
Observation
Tomatoes were displayed in
direct sunlight in most stalls
in the vicinity of tomato
market and street vendor
Percentage of respondents where tomatoes
were displayed in direct sunlight

27
Results –Practice and perception on tomato safety and hygiene
13.3
96.6
15.2
100
57.1
85.7
40.4
47.5
80.8
59.6
80.1
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%
Do you wash the tomatoes after you purchase…
Do you wash with just water?
Do you wash the tomatoes when on display? *
Do you wash with just water?
Can you get the quantity of water that you…
Can you get the quality of water that you…
Do you use a wet cloth to wash/clean the…
Do you change this washcloth during the day? *
Do you use a dry cloth or other dry item to…
Are toilet facilities adequate?
Is water available to wash hands after using…
Yes No Sometimes
• Only about 20% of tomato
traders practiced washing
tomatoes
• Washing was practiced more
in Harar than in Dire Dawa*
• Most traders (81%) use dry
cloth or other dry item to
remove dust from the
tomatoes
• Around 43% and 14% cannot
get the quantity and quality
of water needed respectively

28
Results…..cont.
Observations
• 14% of the wash water is
visibly dirty

29
Results…..cont.
Dry cloth or other dry
item to remove dust
from the tomatoes –
some visibly dirty

30
Results…..cont.
• For about 40% of outlets one or more flies
were seen to be present on a third to two-
thirds of their tomatoes
• About of street vendors (55%) visited had one
or more flies compared with formal shops
(22%)
• The fly occurrence is significantly higher in Dire
Dawa (50%) than Harar (24%).

31
Results - Knowledge and perception of tomato traders
39.1
96
87.4
93.4
26.5
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Do you ever hear about health problems
from eating uncooked tomatoes such…
Is cleanliness and hygiene important to
your customers when choosing where…
Is water quality and cleanliness
important for food safety?
Is the temperature the food is kept at
important for food safety?
Is food waste through damage and
spoilage of tomatoes a problem for you?
Yes No Don’t know
• About 96% said that
cleanliness and hygiene was
important for customers when
choosing where to buy
vegetables.
• However, the major concerns
of tomato traders in terms of
food safety for vegetables is
contamination with dirt rather
than germs
• Higher proportion of street
venders (17%) did not know
about the importance of water
quality and cleanliness for food
safety
62.9%
70.8%
35.5%
26.9%
0.0%
2.3%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Harar Diredawa
Dirt Germs Chemical contamination

32
Results…..cont.
92
100 97
89
96
22
39
21
33 30
22
36
26
22 28
44
0
34
61
50
58
0
34
22
53
8
0 0 0
8
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Retailer in market
(n=36)
Stall in vicinity of
market (n=59)
Street venders
(n=38)
Formal shop (n=18) Total
Sorting Washing
Limiting transport distance Better storage
Better packaging Better mgt at prod. (pesticide application)
Measures to reduce tomato food waste mentioned by different
tomato market outlets
• Most actors (70%) did not
recognize washing as a
measure to reduce tomato
food wastage.
• They said tomatoes do not like
washing, they become
damaged more quickly after
washing.
• 8% of retailers mentioned
better tomato management
during production, such as
pesticide application

33
Results -Influence of COVID on food safety practices
• About 62% of respondents
explained they have
changed some practices
due to COVID-19
• Lower proportion of street
vendors (36.8%) compared
to other outlet types made
changes
Any practice changed with COVID among different tomato
market actors

34
Results…..Cont.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Retailer in market
(n=23)
Stall in vicinity of
market (n=45)
Street venders not
in or by market
(n=14)
Formal shop (n=12)
Self-hand washing Customers hand washing
Self-use of soap Customers use of soap
Vegetable wash Social distancing
Wear mask
Type of practice changed with COVID-19 in different market
outlets
4.1
8.3
4.6
4.6
9.1
5.1
4.3
8.8
4.9
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Before covid At the height of covid Now
No.
of
times
per
day
Harar Diredawa Total
Mean number of times vendors washed their hands
per day before, at the height of COVID-19 and now.

35
Results…..Cont.
30.6%
9.0%
72.6%
62.9%
14.5%
3.4%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Harar Diredawa
Before At the height Now
Functional hand washing facilities at the market or stall
immediately before COVID, at the height and now

36
Results-Perception on different tomato safety and hygiene interventions
Perception of market actors for different tomato hygiene
intervention
• More than half of them (54%)
would like to receive training on
food hygiene and provision of
basic equipment like washing
equipment, tables or covers for
the food
• Under half the vendors(45%)
interviewed would like to receive
training and provision of
sanitizer chemical
(chlorine/hypochlorite/
permanganate) to put in water to
kill germs when cleaning tomato

37
Results…..Cont.
Comparison among intervention with different parameters
• About two-thirds of
respondents considered
training on food hygiene
and provision of basic
equipment can positively
affect food safety
• Half said it was
convenient to implement

38
Burkina Faso
Sampling
Stratified random sampling
• 100 retailers in the market from 110 markets that consists of
19,424 stalls selling vegetables
• 50 street vendors from 1096 tomato street vendors

39
Results – amount of tomato damage, causes and seasonality
Amount of damaged tomato
• On average 25% become
damaged whilst they have
them, for every X units of
undamaged tomatoes
• No difference by outlet type

40
Results…..cont.
Wastage/losses of tomatoes
• On average 16% was lost for
various reasons
• Around 85% discarded, 33% of
these fed to livestock, 5% eaten
by people
• No significant difference in
percentage of tomatoes losses
across outlet type

41
Results…..cont.
Main cause of damage for tomato in Burkina Faso
20
18
17
18
12
18
24
14
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Retailors in the market Street Vendors
Percentage
of
resp.
Susceptible to damage when purchased damaged during transport
kept for too long kept at high temperature
don’t know Chemical application (Excessive use of fertilizer)
Pesticide other

42
Results…..cont.
47.8
46.1
29.6
43.5
30.4
24.4
7.8
6.1
2.6 1.7 1.7
10.4
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
Percentage
of
respondents
When do you sell more
damaged tomatoes?
Season of more damaged
tomatoes sold

43
Results - Tomato transaction
• The quantity of tomato
sales per day varied for
each outlet type
• Tomato traders sort
and sell different
quality/price grades of
tomatoes
• The reported
proportion of grade 1
tomatoes sold was
higher for street
vendors (79% vs. 64%)
Mean = 72
P50 = 25
Mean = 25
P50 = 10

44
Results - Tomato handling and storage practice
Type of tomato containers

45
Results…..cont.
• It is relatively longer in
retailers in the market
compared to street
vendors
The minimum and maximum number of days between
when outlets receive an intact tomato and when they sell
Mean = 5
P50 = 3
Mean = 3
P50 = 3

46
Results…..cont.
Do you sort tomatoes
according to quality when you
sell, transport or store them?
Practice of sorting tomato among different market outlets

47
Results…..cont.
Observation
Tomatoes were displayed
in direct sunlight in the
majority of street vendor

48
Results…..cont.
1.7
4.9
2.5
2.7
19.5
4.7
14.9
19
19.8
14.8
21.5
24.2
78.5
63.6
74.4
6
8.1
5.4
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%
Do you sort tomatoes according to quality
when you sell them?
Do you sort tomatoes according to quality
when you transport them to storage or to…
Do you sort tomatoes according to quality
when stored?
Do tomatoes become damaged when they are
being taken or transported to storage?
In storage are tomatoes exposed to flies?
In storage are they exposed to
animals/rodents?
NA Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always
• Only less than 3% do not
practice sorting when they
sell tomato
• Higher proportion of
respondents also reported
practice of sorting during
transport and storage
• About half of respondents
self-reported that tomatoes
are exposed to flies and
• 34% of them reported
tomatoes are exposed
rodents in the storage
Tomato handling and storage practice

49
Results –practice and perception on tomato safety and hygiene
46
94.4
52
96.2
100
100
4.7
14.3
11.3
80
96.7
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Do you wash the tomatoes after you purchase them? *
Do you wash with just water?
Do you wash the tomatoes when on display? *
Do you wash with just water?
Can you get the quantity of water that you need?
Can you get the quality of water that you need? *
Do you use a wet cloth to wash/clean the vegetables on display
during the day?
Do you change this washcloth during the day? *
Do you use a dry cloth or other dry item to remove dust from
the vegetables on display during the day?
Are toilet facilities adequate?
Is water available to wash hands after using the toilet?
Yes No Sometimes
• Only about 46% of tomato
traders practised washing
tomatoes
• But 94% wash with just water
• Only 11% use dry cloth or
other dry item to remove dust
from the tomatoes
• Adequate quantity and
quality of water

50
Results…..cont.
Observation
• 21.4% of the wash water
is visibly dirty
• Majority (81%) of outlets
one or more flies were
seen to be present on a
third to two-thirds of
their tomatoes

51
Results - Knowledge and perception of tomato traders
28.2
93.3
97.3
92.6
92.6
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%
Do you ever hear about health problems from
eating uncooked tomatoes such as in salads?
Is cleanliness and hygiene important to your
customers when choosing where to buy…
Is water quality and cleanliness important for
food safety?
Is the temperature the food is kept at
important for food safety?
Is food waste through damage and spoilage of
tomatoes a problem for you?
Yes No Don't know
• About 93% said that
cleanliness and hygiene was
important for customers when
choosing where to buy
vegetables.
• However, the major concerns
of tomato traders in terms of
food safety for vegetables is
contamination with chemicals
and dirt rather than germs
31.0
26.0 29.3
52.0
66.0
56.7
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
Retailers in the market Street vendors Total
percentage
of
res.
Food contaminated with dirt Food contaminated with germs
Food contaminated with chemicals other

52
Results…..cont.
61
48
56.7
10
12 10.7
45
28
39.3
12
10 11.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Retailer in market (n=108) Street venders (n=35) Total (n=150)
Sorting Washing
Limiting transport distance Better storage condition
Better packaging Avoid chemicals (pesticide application)
Reduce stock Control market supply
• Sorting recognized as being important
for reducing damage and wastage by
majority of vendors
• Most actors (90%) did not recognize
washing as a measure to reduce
tomato food wastage.
Measures to reduce tomato waste mentioned in different
tomato outlets

53
Field Team
Ethiopia
ILRI
• Kebede Amenu (Addis Ababa University)
• Biruk Alemu
• Theodore Knight-Jones (backstopping online)
Haramaya University
• Sisay Girma
• Mukerem Taha
• Kemal Kasim
• Jemal (Driver)
Burkina Faso
• Guy et al.

THANK YOU