The specific objectives are: i) to determine
the level of awareness of pesticide residue in
locally available food among food sellers in Ile
Ife area of Osun state, Nigeria; ii) to identify the
demographic and socio-economic characteristics
of food sellers who use pesticides, natural
means in preserving their foodstuff from getting
spoilt; iii) to determine the level of understanding
of food sellers who use pesticides
about the likely health implications that could
result. The design of the study is cross sectional.
Structured open-ended questionnaires were
administered to 98 randomly selected food sellers
in Ile Ife area Osun state, Nigeria. This
includes males and female. The inference from
the study shows that majority of the food sellers
were between ages 21 and 30 years, suggesting
that more of the young people are involved in
the selling of foodstuff in the area of study. Most
of the food sellers used phostozin, an
organophosphate compound as preservatives
for cereals. The majority of those that were
aware of the health hazards associated with the
usage of pesticides as preservative were literate
school leavers. Among respondents to the questionnaire,
it was expected that many of those
food sellers likely to demonstrate caution in the
usage of pesticide would be the literate school
leavers. This is because they are more aware of
the possible associated health hazards than
their fellow food sellers who are not literate.
The level of awareness of health implications
associated with use of pesticides on consumable
food items is higher among school certificate
holders who are food sellers. Phostozin, an
organophosphate, is a common preservative
pesticide used on cereals foodstuff (e.g., bean,
rice, maize) in the area of study, especially
among the age group between 21 and 30 years.