Microbiological safety evaluation of street vended ready to eat fruits was conducted in two vending sites, a local market and a University cafeteria. The mean total aerobic plate count ranges from 2.0x106 to 8.2x108 on Pineapple and Watermelon obtained from the local market and from 6.0x104 to 2.7x107 on apple and fruit salads from the University cafeteria. All the samples were contaminated with coliform and fungi with counts ranging from 2.2x105 to 4.2x106 and 2.0x101 to 1.0x103 in the samples from the cafeteria, and 2.0x105 to 3.5x106 and 2.0x102 to 1.1x103 for samples from the local market. Organisms identified include Bacillus spp 100%, S. aureus and Penicillium spp 80%, Aspergillus niger 60%, E. coli, Enterobacter, Salmonella, Klebsiella, Mucor spp 40%, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus, Micrococcus, and Lactobacillus spp 20%. The presence of coliform, and counts of ≥ 106 in most of the samples is a reflection of the sanitary quality of the processing of the produce and calls for concern. Adequate training of food vendors to maintain high standard of personal and environmental hygiene, proper washing of fruits before consumption, regular washing of hands and effective application of hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) will help control contamination of products.
展开▼
