The World Health Organization reported in 2008 that there was an increasing number of people consuming food outside their homes, which exposes them to potentially poor sanitation in commercial food setting. The unknown sanitation condition of carinderias and sanitary practices of food handlers in both licensed and unlicensed carinderias increases such risk. A cross-sectional study in Zamboanga city was done to determine the sanitation condition of carinderias, sanitary practices of food handlers, reasons of carinderia owners in relation to applying for a permit. A total of 96 carinderias and 160 food handlers were included in the study. The main objective of the study was to determine the sanitation condition of carinderias and the sanitary practices of food handlers of the selected carenderias in Zamboanga. A tool used by Thanh (2015) in Vietnam to survey food stalls was adopted, improved, face validated and content validated, and this was used to survey 96 carenderias in Zamboanga City. Majority of the carinderias were unlicensed (66, 68.75%) had clean vending stalls (78.13%), and did not have adequate handwashing facilities (56.25%). During the observation, foodhandlers were not wearing aprons (81.25%), were not covering their hair (89.37%), and were not washing hands (68.75%) and more than half did not undergo food safety seminar (132, 82.50%). The most common reasons among owners who apply for a permit was because it was a requirement (100%), while it was lack of money (57.14%) or the busy schedule/unfavorable circumstance (42.86%) that hindered other owners from applying for a permit. Overall sanitation condition of carinderias was fair as vending stalls were clean, and utensils were washed adequately with soap and water, but collectively, surroundings were generally unclean and vending stalls were not protected from sun, dust and wind. A sanitary practice of food

Keyword: Sanitation condition of carinderias Sanitary practices of food handlers