As they are being prepared in streets; do we need to avoid them?Health review

I am pretty sure when you hear this term STREET FOOD, you get the imagination of a vendor selling some quick meals in a pushcart or in a basket at a stall at the streets. Exactly! Your imagination is correct and that is the best way to define street food either.  In our Asian context, street food have been highlighted in terms of low cost and varieties available. Even Sri Lanka plays an active role within this context due to the prevailing socio-economic pattern in the country.

Why am I tempted to eat street food very often?

The main cause is the frequent changes which have taken place in our own life styles. Fast living and most importantly the contribution of the domestic engineers towards work life have ultimately lead us to the extreme point of compromising the nutritional requirement with the sole excuse  “I do not have time for cooking”.  In today’s instant world, people try to fulfill their nutrient requirement outside their homes and that is also on the go. This behavior is well stimulated with the street food concept as these food need no any further processing or preparation and can be even consumed in the run. Further we need not travel along way to access these food. They can be easily found in places like streets, schools, train stations, bus terminals, entertainment and festival areas where people are crowded.

Is there anything good about street food?

Yes there is. Street food are mostly found native to a country. Hence they serve as an evidence of describing the identity of that country. Accordingly, street food help to strengthen regional and traditional food habits and also help to attract tourists with the varieties available.  People with low socioeconomic state can have easy access to these street food as they are quick, cheap and also convenient to consume. On commercial aspect, involving in street food preparation creates more self-employment opportunities as there is no requirement for a large capital unlike in a private business.

How about its impact on our individual health?

In terms of hygiene, health and nutritional composition, the nutrition security of street food is poor. Chemical, physical microbial contamination (pathogenic and non-pathogenic) of street food can lead to food borne diseases outbreaks resulting in the symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, cramp pain, diarrhea and fever. However when it comes to healthy adults, evolution of food borne diseases is self-limiting without leading to any serious complications. But based on the  type and the amount of toxins ingested through the contamination, high risk categories that include children, pregnant women, elderly, malnutrition and/or immune-compromised patients,  can end up in more sever and prolonged  clinical manifestations progressing to bloody diarrhea, acute renal failure, bacteremia, sepsis and even death.

Since the street foods usually have high quantities of carbohydrates and fats, frequent consumption and consumption in large quantities can lead to non-communicable diseases such as, overweight and obesity, type II diabetes, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease and cancer.

What could be the possible reasons for the poor nutrition security of street food?

One of the main causes is the usage of cheap and poor quality raw materials for the food preparation. Lack of facilities such as clean water, hand hygiene, and utensils used for cooking, food storage, maintenance & preservation facilities, have been also identified as few main causes .Temporary nature and mobility of street food vendors from place to place leads to poor sanitary quality as well for the increased exposure of food which can easily result in poor nutrition security. Most importantly poor health and nutrition literacy of vendors contribute immensely for the compromising of nutrition quality health and hygiene during the street food preparation.

Anything we the home makers can do other than the prevailing legislation and state administrative follow ups?

The nutritional security of street food depends on the quality of the ingredients used and how they are prepared, stored and sold. And the fact that everyone should accept is that omitting street food completely is not practicable in today’s society.

Hence we the home makers can work towards the health benefits of our family;

"Let’s limit ready-made food consumption at streets and bring them to our dining table"

Come lets prepare Capsicum, Onion ring Bajjies & Bajji bites; one of the famous street food in India (So is in Sri Lanka).

Remember! Not in the street but in your lovely kitchen with yummy.pots

What you will need: For a dish of 10 Bajjies

1. Fresh Capsicum-10

2. Bulb onions (large)-3

3. Gram flour 1 cup

4. Rice flour 1/4 cups

5. Pinch of salt to taste

6. Turmeric powder /Yellow food coloring for more brighter color.( Note : It’s suggested to avoid food coloring and to add turmeric powder instead,  as turmeric gives sufficient color and thus is health friendly compared to food coloring)

7. Preferred curry for filling (vegetable, tuna egg, chicken beef etc curries can be used for filling. They can be prepared similar to that of short eat filling)

8. Boiling water

9. Oil ( Not required if Air frying)

Let’s start

First add boiling water to the container with capsicum and keep it closed for about 15-20 minutes. After 20 minutes you will feel that the capsicums are soft. Then take the capsicums out, make a lengthy cut along a side of each capsicum and remove all the seeds inside. Then you can fill the curry which you have already kept prepared. Gently do the filling as hard handling can make tearing and damages.

Peel and cut the onions horizontally so you will get thin onion ring. Keep them aside. Now you can make the batter.  Add gram flour, rice flour, salt, turmeric powder and water to make a thick batter (Here the batter should well coat with the capsicum; neither be very thick nor be very runny. Therefore carefully add water little by little to get the correct consistency)

 Soak the capsicums in the batter so that they are well coated and then air fry/deep fry them. Follow the same with onion rings.

For Bajji bites, once the whole fried capsicum is taken out, slice them in to pieces (1 capsicum can be sliced in to maximum 3-4 pieces) and fry them again.

Bajjies and Bajjie bites are ready. You can serve with Tomato ketchup or mayo sauce or any other sauce you prefer.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe!

Healthy cooking for a wealthy living!

By creative kitchen girl @yummy.pots

References

Ceyhun Sezgin, A. and Şanlıer, N. (2016) Street food consumption in terms of the food safety and health, Journal of Human Sciences, 13(3), p. 4072.

Lopes Nonato, I. and Almeida Minussi, L. O. De (2016) Nutritional Issues Concerning Street Foods, Journal of Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics, 02(01), pp. 1–9.

Santiago, R. (2012) Regional Consultation on safe street foods, World Health Organization, pp. 10–12.