Sanitation standards of a local market in a remote area in Samrong, Cambodia

Dear Sir,

Gastrointestinal problem is a common problem in the tropical world. Food sanitation is an important preventive measure for controlling gastrointestinal diseases. The cleanliness of the place where there is selling of food is a big issue in public health. The market has to be concordant with the sanitation standards. However, the problem can be seen in several local markets in developing countries. Without sanitation, the sold food can be easily exposed to insects and air-borne microorganisms and this can lead to contamination, which can further induce gastrointestinal diseases. ^[1] Harrison et al. recently reported the high rate of poor sanitation in the markets of a developed country. ^[2] In that Viginia study, “over 42% have no food safety standards in place for the market.” ^[2] It can imagined how much more serious the problem might be in the developing countries. Here, the authors report a field study in March 2015 in the main local market of a remote rural area, namely, Samrong in Cambodia. This area is located in the border with Thailand. There are many poor local people in this area. Using the market standards checklist, it can be seen that no food shop in this market qualifies the sanitations standards. Hence, it can reflect a big problem in this area.

The authors would like to thank the Master’s degree students in Public Health Curriculum, Surin Rajabhat University who helped collect data for this field study.

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/1755-6783.157287