The study was aimed to assess the microbial quality and safety of street vended raw meats in Jijigarntown of Ethiopia. Questionnaire was used to assess the socio-demographic characteristics andrnknowledge of raw meat vendors about food safety from randomly selected 33 vendors. Visualrnassessment was also made. A total of 60 raw meat samples containing 30 raw beef and 30 raw goatrnmeat samples were collected for microbiological analysis. The pH and holding temperature of thernmeat were measured. The microbial load was analyzed in terms of counts of aerobic mesophiles,rnEnterobacteriacea, Coliforms, Staphylococci, Lactic acid bacteria, Yeasts and Moulds using standardrnmethods . Furthermore, the aerobic mesophilic flora of the samples was characterized to differentrngenera and bacterial groups. The presence Salmonella was also determined. Survey indicated thatrn78.8% of vendors were females and only 30.3% of the vendors were literate. The majority (58%) werernin the age of 26-41. None them had working garment. 27% and 33% had untrimmed (unclean) nailsrnand unclean clothing (body parts) respectively. Wear of jewelries (70%) and finger nail paintingrn(76%) were also observed. Vendors had different degree of awareness about food safety, sources ofrncontamination and food borne diseases. The sanitary condition of the vending environment was notrnalso satisfactory. Basic sanitary facilities were not available. The mean pH values were 6.03 and 5.2rnfor beef meat and goat meat samples respectively the samples were held in a temperature range ofrn17.5-27.5Â°C at the time of vending. Beef meat and goat meat samples had mean aerobic mesophilicrncounts >7logcfu/g. Enterobacteriacea and coliforms were frequently encountered in all samples andrnboth of the varieties had mean counts for both microbial groups > 4logcfu/g. Both species of meat hadrnmean staphylococci counts > 6logcfu/g. Both meat types had mean counts of lactic acid bacteria,rnyeasts and moulds 4logcfu/g. The aerobic plate counts were dominated by Staphylococcus spp.rnfollowed by Enterobacteriacea and other Gram positive rods. Salmonellae were also isolated fromrn5(8.3 %) raw meat samples. One-way ANOVA revealed as there were significant differences (P