MICROBIAL ASSESSMENT OF READY-TO-EAT FOOD AND FOOD CONTACT SURFACES IN SELECTED RESTAURANTS IN OKADA, SOUTH -SOUTH NIGERIA

Obhioze Augustine Akpoka

doi:10.36547/be.2019.2.3.58-63

Abstract

Good food hygiene ensures that the preparation and preservation of foods are safe for human consumption. It ensures that food is prevented from microbial contamination at the levels of production to consumption. The aim of this study was to determine the microbial content of ready-to-eat cooked food, ready-to-use serving plates and hands of food handlers in six selected restaurants in Okada, Edo State, Nigeria. The samples were aseptically collected from the restaurants and taken to the microbiology laboratory of Igbinedion University, Okada for analysis. The microbial content of the samples was identified by standard microbiological methods. The microorganisms isolated were Enterobacter species, Streptococcus species, Micrococcus species, Bacillus species, Staphylococcus aureus and Saccharomyces species. The total aerobic viable counts, total coliform counts and total Staphylococcus counts in the ready-to-eat cooked food from the six restaurants were 3.67 ± 0.33 × 102 cfu/g - 2.71 ± 0.05 × 104 cfu/g; 3.33 ± 0.33 × 102 cfu/g - 2.39 ± 0.04 × 104 cfu/g and 0.00 ± 0.00 cfu/g - 3.70 ± 0.21 × 103 cfu/g respectively. The concentration of microbes on the food contact surfaces from ready-to-use serving plates were 0.00 ± 0.00 cfu/cm2 - 14.67 ± 0.33 cfu/cm2 and 0.00 ± 0.00 cfu/cm2 - 22.67 ± 0.33 cfu/cm2 in the hands of the food handlers. Therefore, foods provided to consumers at these restaurants are not of acceptable microbiological quality.

Highlights

Food hygiene is an important public health problem and as such has drawn the attention from several sectors with efforts being intensified to improve food safety
Food contamination may occur at any point of processing or preparation, food handlers play a critical role in the occurrence and spread of foodborne illnesses as their hands and other body parts may harbor microorganisms
Some ready-to-eat foods are regarded as ‘potentially hazardous’. Such foods can support the growth of pathogenic bacteria and must be kept at certain temperatures to minimize the growth of any pathogens that may be present in the food or to prevent the formation of toxins in the food (NSW, 2009)

Summary

Introduction

Food hygiene is an important public health problem and as such has drawn the attention from several sectors with efforts being intensified to improve food safety. Food contamination may occur at any point of processing or preparation, food handlers play a critical role in the occurrence and spread of foodborne illnesses as their hands and other body parts may harbor microorganisms Their actions may compromise the chain of safety. Consumers purchase ready-to-eat food with a rational expectation that they were prepared, produced, processed or packaged under hygienic conditions and not contaminated or adulterated by any biological, chemical or physical hazards These expectations are ‘supposed’ to be regularly enforced by regulations that govern production, processing, distribution and retailing of food and drugs in any country. An estimated 600 million, (almost 1 in 10 people in the world) fall ill after eating contaminated food and with a mortality of 420,000 annually, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (WHO, 2019) This global burden of food-borne disease is unequally distributed globally. This work, is aimed at carrying out a microbial assessment of the ready-to-eat cooked food and their contact surfaces in selected restaurants in the study area

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