Abstract
Bacterial count in prepared food or water is a key factor in assessing the quality and safety of food. It also reveals the level of hygiene adopted by food handlers in the course of preparation of such foods. This comparative study evaluated the bacteriological quality of food and water consumed in Nsukka, Enugu state, Nigeria, using three bacteria enumeration methods. Data obtained are assumed to reflect the level of personal and environmental hygiene in the study population. Ten types of foods--beans, yam, abacha, okpa, moimoi, pear, cassava foofoo, rice, agidi, and garri--and 10 water samples were evaluated for bacteriological quality, precisely determining the level of coliform contamination, using the most probable number (MPN), lactose fermentation count (LFC), and Escherichia coli count (ECC) methods. Bacterial counts differed significantly (p < 0.05) among the various food samples. However, this did not differ significantly in the three methods used for the enumeration of coliforms, suggesting that any of the three methods could be validly used for such studies with confidence. Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were the two major coliforms identified among 98 coliform isolates obtained from the various food samples, of which 78 (79.6%) were assumed to be of human origin on account of their ability to grow at 44 degrees C. The level of coliform contamination in the food samples from vendors and restaurants (geometric mean count 7.64-9.21; MPN > or = 50) were above the accepted 10(4) colony-forming unit/g or MPN < or = 10 limits. The results of the study, therefore, call for stringent supervision and implementation of food-safety practices and regular education on food and personal hygiene among food vendors.
Highlights
Food and water in particular have been described as vehicles for the transmission of microbial diseases, among which are those caused by coliforms [1]
This lack of social amenities and municipal utilities has, in no small measure, contributed negatively to poor personal and environmental hygiene of food vendors in this locality. It is with this background that this investigation on the bacteriological quality of foods sold by vendors and in restaurants in Nsukka town is reported
Two broad techniques—the most probable number (MPN) and the plate count (LFC and Escherichia coli count (ECC))—were applied in the investigation
Summary
Food and water in particular have been described as vehicles for the transmission of microbial diseases, among which are those caused by coliforms [1]. Coliforms are Gram-negative, rod-shaped, nonspore-forming aerobes and facultative anaerobes that ferment lactose to produce acid and gas within 48 hours at 35 oC. The conditions described above prevail in Nsukka, a rural town in Enugu state in south-eastern Nigeria, and are compounded by inadequate access to good pipe-borne water, poor drainage systems, and lack of appopriate waste-disposal facilities. This lack of social amenities and municipal utilities has, in no small measure, contributed negatively to poor personal and environmental hygiene of food vendors in this locality. It is with this background that this investigation on the bacteriological quality of foods sold by vendors and in restaurants in Nsukka town is reported
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