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The potential for street foods as a public health concern was evaluated focusing on fish ball vended in various locations within the urban area of Iligan City, from October, 2007 to February, 2008. Gross ocular observation on the physical condition of twenty eight (28) fish ball vendors was done after obtaining their consent for ethical reasons. Stalls and carts used for vending were also checked for adequacy of sanitary requirements. Sources, manner of cooking and dispensing offish ball were also investigated using a combination of ocular inspection and personal interview. Other pertinent information of the vendors such as gender, educational attainment, income, and marital status, were also obtained. Results show that majority of the sampled fish ball vendors operating in Iligan City were married males who have reached but have not finished high school (61%). Most of the respondents earned from P300.00 up to about P600.00 per day (64%). Although approximately 74% of the respondents sport short hair, close to 61% did not keep their properly befitting food handling. Approximately 60% of vendors had uncut dirty fingernails, although all of them had no noticeable body odor.

Majority of the vending stalls and carts (86%) were stationed close to schools with 64% located in polluted areas not ideal for street vending. Half of the vending stalls and carts (14) did not have any insect pest infestation whereas, 46% had fly infestation, and close to 4% with ant problem. Mobile vending carts (79%) outnumbered fixed stalls (21%). Eighty-two percent (82%) of the vendors cleaned their utensils regularly and 18% cleaned such material once in a while. Of the 28 vendors, 89% cleaned their fish ball containers properly, and 75% had some system of garbage disposal, while the remaining 25% did not have any provision for garbage disposal. More than half (57%) of the locations vendors used were far from toilet facilities. The rest were either 10 or 20 meters away from toilets.

With regards to access to faucet water, 68% did not have access to such water supply, while the rest were either one, five or ten meters from the nearest faucet water. Source of prepared fish ball was mainly from commercially-made products sold in public markets (86%). Majority of the vendors (82%) recycled their cooking oil. On a daily basis, close to 6,000 were served with 65% school children, 23% adolescents, and 12% adults.

Although fish ball street vending has been shown to be a good livelihood requiring little investment and technical skill, a number of factors were identified as potential risk factors in terms of food safety and public health. Fly infestation, dirty fingernails of food handlers, lack of proper hygiene and garbage disposal, polluted surroundings, lack of clean water source, and use of recycled cooking oil, are the identified risks in fish ball street vending. There is therefore an urgent need to address these risk factors through the formulation and implementation of pertinent ordinances for street food vending by the local government units. The academe will have an important role in information, education and training for street food vendors.