ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to analyze the food safety practices among beef purveyors in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo state, Nigeria and this was achieved by addressing the following objectives: identify the socio-economic characteristics of beef purveyors; identify food safety practices adopted by beef purveyors in the study area; estimate the cost and return of food safety practices in beef and to identify the constraints in adopting safe practices in beef purveying in the study area.
A two-staged sampling technique was used to select a sample size of ninety-one (91) respondents. Both Primary and secondary data sources were used in the collection of data and the analysis of the data was done using tools such as frequency counts, percentages, mean, gross margin, marketing margin and benefit cost ratio.
The study indicated that majority of beef purveyors were females accounting for 83.5% while the males accounted for about 16.5%. Majority of them (87.9%) were married and have had (86.8%) some form of formal education with 64.8% of the total respondents within the age bracket of 31-50 years. It was further observed that 93.4% have a family size between the range of 1 – 7 persons. Majority of the beef purveyors (73.6%) have solid experience from 11 years and above. The results showed that 76.9% of the respondents get their beef already processed from the abattoir or from other markets; 96.7% of the respondents takes 1-3 days to sell off all the beef stock purchased. 85.7% of the respondents wash/sanitize their hands, other cutting tools and selling materials with cleaning agents before selling beef meat to customers and 91.2% of the respondents wash their beef meat before selling to customers. Nonetheless, it was observed that lesser hygiene was carried in transporting the beef from the slaughter house; also in the operations of the Results also showed that an average net profit of N243, 923 monthly is actualized per beef purveyor in the study area and a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 1.07 which reflects that beef purveying is viable, solvent and profitable in the study area. The major constraints facing beef purveyors are the extent to which credit, debt and power supply affect market sales and health of meat. It was recommended that the marketers form cooperatives alongside the government to provide adequate power supply through solar and/or biogas power, inspect markets and transportation mediums, and make policies to standardize the abattoirs and slaughter houses in order to allow for strict health and food safety compliance.
