Perception and attitudes of street food vendors toward the healthiness of meals prepared and sold in Dodoma

Consumption of street meals among urban dwellers has become inevitable, especially in low‐ and middle‐income countries. It has been linked to higher incidence of dietary‐related diseases. Vendors' perceptions and attitudes toward the healthiness of meals can influence nutritional quality of the offered meals. Therefore, the study aimed to assess perceptions and attitudes of vendors toward healthy and unhealthy meals as well as the healthiness of meals they prepare and sell. A cross‐sectional study was carried out among 384 street food vendors. Face‐to‐face interviews were conducted using semistructured questionnaire. Pearson Chi‐square test and logistic regression analysis were used in comparing and testing for the association of perceptions and attitudes to vendors' characteristics. Street food vendors that took part in this study demonstrated good perceptions based on what they perceived to be healthy meals (58.33%) and positive attitudes (95.57%) toward preparation and provision of healthy meals. Perceptions were associated with sex (p = .007), education level (p = .002), and investment cost (p = .000). Results from logistic regression showed that better perceptions of healthy meals were associated with being female (OR = 2.46, p‐value < .031), having higher education (OR = 11.88, p‐value < .042), and vending experience of 1–5 years and more than 5 years (OR = 3.17, 2.95, p‐value < .019, .039, respectively) while having moderate investment cost showed significant lower chances of having better perceptions (OR = 0.33, p‐value < .001). Attitudes were associated with sex (p = .002), age (p = .002), marital status (p = .013), education (p = .009), and vending experience (p = .008). Female vendors, having 25 years of age and above, living with partners, with tertiary education, and having vending experience of more than 1 year had shown to have more positive attitudes toward healthy meals. Generally, street food vendors had good perceptions and attitudes toward healthy meals. This implies possible room for change and adoption of better ways of preparing meals. These findings could be used as a stepping stone in improving nutritional and healthy quality of street meals. Increased efforts are needed on the inclusion of nutritional aspects of healthy meals as they were merely considered by vendors. Future interventions on these vendors should focus more on male vendors, vendors with little vending experience, and little education as they had shown to have relatively poorer attitudes and perceptions compared to other groups.