Safety Assessment of Street Hot Beverages Made of Coffee, Tea, Milk or Cocoa Consumed in Abidjan City

In recent years, sale and consumption of hot beverages made of coffee, tea, milk or cocoa powder in street have grown, especially in Abidjan city. Despite the potential of hot beverages to contribute to Ivorian food security, no detailed information on the consumption of hot beverages is available. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of hot beverage consumers in Abidjan. A questionnaire and direct observation were used to evaluate the effects of these beverages on consumer health. The survey was conducted in the street of five communes of Abidjan where we found consumers of street vendors with coffee carts. The study revealed that tea (38.4%) was the most consumed, followed by coffee drinkers (31%), coffee with milk (16.6%), milk (10.8%) and cocoa powder beverage (3.2%). Consumers that aged ranged from 20 to 34 years consumed more tea (20.2%) and coffee (19.4%). More than half of consumers (50.4%) consumed only one cup per day. The survey revealed that most of consumers (42%) consumed hot beverages in the morning and 24.2% of consumers drank it at any time. Most of tea consumers (24.4%) preferred it with sugar and lemon, according to 7.6% of consumers, it was against tiredness. Coffee was consumed mainly with sugar by 25% of consumers as exciting (16.2%). This study also revealed that coffee consumption was dominated by males (36.2%) and tea was more popular among females (42.3%) than males (37.5%). Unfortunately, hot beverage consumers (5.6%) surveyed reported negative effects such diarrhea (1.2%), nausea (0.6%), vertigo (0.6%) and hand tremors (0.6%) after drinking hot beverage from street beverage vendors. This study is the first that evaluated five hot beverages made of tea, coffee, milk, coffee with milk or cocoa powder consumption from street vendors with coffee carts in Cote d’Ivoire.