Abstract
Household refrigerators are a potential source of pathogen contamination for foods leading to food spoilage and food borne diseases. This study was carried out to examine the consumers’ knowledge and hygiene status of household refrigerators in Ibadan, Lagos and Abeokuta. One hundred and eighty households were randomly selected. Questionnaires covering social demographic characteristics, refrigerator quality and maintenance practices, householders’ knowledge about food borne diseases, and frequency of electricity supply were administered. The interior of each refrigerator was swabbed using a sterile swab stick that had been pre-soaked in peptone diluent. Each sample collected was plated out on four different culture media viz. Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar, Mannitol Salt agar and Potato Dextrose agar. Results showed that majority of the householders had good knowledge of food borne disease, powered their refrigerators with generators and have some levels of education. Some refrigerators were completely free from contamination (neither bacteria nor fungi was detected) while others were found to be contaminated. Total viable count of bacteria ranged between 0 and 14.1 × 106 cfu/ml while fungi count ranged from 0 to 6.8× 106 cfu/ml. Bacteria and fungi isolated from the refrigerators were Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp. and Shigella spp., Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. fumigatus, Saccharomyces cerevisae and Rhizopus spp. Findings show the presence of microorganisms which can cause food spoilage and food borne diseases. Educational programmes are needed to improve the refrigeration practices and the issue of regular supply of electricity is paramount in the hygiene of refrigerators.
Highlights
Consumers store various kinds of food in refrigerator at an inappropriate temperature which could give rise to food borne diseases or illness [1]
New food borne pathogens and food borne diseases are likely to emerge due to factors such as pathogen evolution, changes in Agriculture and food manufacturing practices and changes in the human host status [3]
Consumers associate Food Borne Illness (FBI) with the consumption of foods outside of home; it is well known that foods prepared and consumed at home represent a risk for FBI outbreaks [11,12,13]
Summary
Consumers store various kinds of food in refrigerator at an inappropriate temperature which could give rise to food borne diseases or illness [1]. Food borne pathogens are the leading cause of illness and death in less developed countries. In the developed countries food borne pathogens are responsible for millions of cases of infections such as gastrointestinal diseases each year [2]. Lower temperature in a confined volume lowers the reproduction rate of bacteria, so the refrigerator reduces the rate of spoilage. Cooling is a popular food storage technique in many countries and works by decreasing the reproduction rate of bacteria. The device is used to reduce the rate of spoilage of foodstuffs [5]
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