A farm-to-fork assessment of risk-related food safety practices in a smallholder pork value chain in rural western Kenya

Background Animal-source food value chains in sub-Saharan Africa are expanding in response to rising demand, creating opportunities to improve livelihoods, nutrition and food security. However, this growth requires improvements in food safety infrastructure to ensure that food safety risks are not amplified, especially in smallholder-dominated and informal value chains. Rural western Kenya has the second-largest pig population nationally, and pork consumption is increasing. While previous research in Kenya has examined urban pork value chains or specific pathogens at individual points along the pork chain, less is known about how pork product flows and risky food safety practices are distributed across rural pork value chains. Methods This study was conducted in Busia County, rural western Kenya. Focus group discussions with pork retailers were used to identify key value-chain nodes, followed by cross-sectional surveys using structured questionnaires and observation checklists. We conducted four retailer FGDs and collected descriptive data from 125 pork retailers, including 105 who recorded weekly sales and purchases and 104 who also sold cooked pork. Data came from 14 slaughter slabs, 144 slaughter observations, 113 carcass transport observations, and 144 consumers purchasing raw pork for household preparation. Descriptive analyses summarized the frequency of risky practices, while value-chain maps visualised pork product flows. Results The value chain was primarily supplied by smallholders with farms of 1–5 pigs. At slaughter, all observed carcasses ( n = 144, across 14 slaughter slabs) were dehaired on the floor, and intestinal leakage occurred in 51.1% of eviscerations. During carcass transport, only 20.8% of observations used meat transport containers that complied with regulations, and most carcasses were transported in woven plastic sacks. At raw pork retail outlets, 86.9% of retailers stored pork for more than 24 h at ambient temperature. In cooked pork outlets, pork reached temperatures consistent with thermal inactivation of enteric pathogens and parasites, but only 9.2% of handlers washed their hands after handling raw pork and before preparing raw vegetable side salads. Conclusion These findings describe how risky food safety practices are distributed across this rural pork value chain and provide empirical inputs for intervention planning in this and comparable smallholder-dominated pork value chains.