MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY AND SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF FRESHLY PREPARED FRUIT JUICES SOLD IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Fruit juices are among the best food products with respect to the nutritional and medicinal applications. However, disaster can come along the way, as bacteria can cause spoiling of fruit juices through contaminated raw materials, extraction equipment and malpractice of handlers and results into the deleterious health effects. Numerous bacterial species including Streptococcus spp., Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholera, etc can be present in high concentrations in fruit juices. In the present study, a total of 164 bacterial strains were isolated from nine samples of fresh fruit juices (Carrot, Orange and sugarcane) from different areas in Lahore. Three media i.e., Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar and Eosin Methylene Blue agar (EMB) were used for enumeration and isolation of various bacterial genera. Among the total 164 isolated bacterial strains, 37 were recovered from sugarcane juice samples, 91 from carrot juice samples and 36 from orange juice samples. The most frequent strains were E. coli and Enterobaacter spp. which were most likely due to the contamination from water. A panel of 10 antibiotics including Erythromycin, Ceftizoxime, Ciprofloxacin, Tobramycin, Vancomycin, Ampicillin, Streptomycin, Polymyxin B, Levofloxacin, and Cephalexin was used to determine the antibiotics sensitivity (AST) status of the isolated strains. It was observed that Levofloxacin showed highest zones of inhibition against all the tested strains and overall, strains didn’t have significant resistance against the tested antibiotics. The practice of proper hand and fruit washing can minimize the potential threat of bacterial contamination in food products.