Microbial contamination of some ready-to-eat vended fruits in Sango open-market, Saki; Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Fruits are widely exposed to microbial contamination through contact with soil, dust, water and handling at harvest, during or postharvest processing. It has been recognized that, they can be a source of food borne illnesses that can majorly result to poor hygiene practices and unsanitary conditions at fruit vending points. The main objective of the study was to assess the hygiene status as well as microbial contamination in fruit-vending-businesses in Saki; a Nigerian City. The microbial contamination of ready-to-eat vended fruits in Sango market was examined using standard microbiological methods. A total of eight (8) fruits samples comprising two from each of fresh Apples (Malus domestica), Cucumber (Cucumis sativus), Orange (Citrus sinensis) and Carrot (Daucus carota) of vended fruits were screened for total bacterial count. Identifications was made through their colony appearance, microscopic examination on nutrient Agar, selective and differential Agar (EMB, MacConkey, SSA, MRS, Biochemical tests (Catalase, sugar,) and Gram staining of the samples. Four (4) bacterial species were identified as: Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp and Shigella spp from the vended fruit samples. The total aerobic plate count ranged from 0.8×104- 0.4×104 CFU ml-1 in apple with the highest count among carrot samples and the lowest among orange samples. The isolated organisms from the vended fruits showed that contamination mainly occurred due to poor hygiene and environmental factors.