Microbiological Examination Of Foods Sold Within Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia

ABSTRACT

The microbiological quality of ready-to-eat food products sold in a federal medical center was assessed. A total of forty eight  food samples, including beans, fried rice, jollof rice and moi-moi were collected from two food vending sites which serves as the major ready to eat food vending centres in the hospital premises. A total of nine species of microorganisms including Bacillus spp, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp, Proteus spp, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium spp and Mucor spp were isolated from the food samples. The mean total aerobic plate count, coliform count and fungal count from Site I range from 2.5 × 103 to 9.1 × 106 cfu/g, 3.2 × 103 to 3.4 × 104 cfu/g, and 6.0 × 102 to 7.3 × 104 cfu/g respectively. Site II had aerobic plate count, coliform count and fungal plate count ranging from 2.7 × 103 to 9.8 × 106, 5.2× 103 to 7.8 × 104 cfu/g, and 9.0 × 103 to 9.3 × 106 cfu/g respectively. Based on the specifications by International Commission for Microbiological Specification for Foods (ICMSF), the level of contaminations was within acceptable microbiological limits except for beans; this could be attributed to extensive handling, mixing and to the fact that it is consumed as raw food. It is recommended that a closer and stringent supervision of ready-to-eat foods sold in hospital areas should be carried out by relevant authorities to prevent possible outbreak food borne illness.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page ﾿ i

Certification ﾿ ii

Dedication ﾿ iii

Acknowledgements ﾿ iv

Table of Contents ﾿ v

List of Tables ﾿ vii

Abstract ﾿ viii

CHAPTER ONE: INTTRODUCTION ﾿ 1

1.1 ﾿      Types of food ﾿ 2

1.1.1 ﾿ Fast food ﾿ 2

1.1.2 ﾿ Junk food ﾿ 3

1.1.3 ﾿ Whole foods ﾿ 3

1.1.4 ﾿ Organic foods ﾿ 4

1.2 ﾿ Sources of food ﾿ 4

1.3 ﾿ Aims and objectives    ﾿ 5

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ﾿ 6

2.1 ﾿ Microbial contamination ﾿ 6

2.2 ﾿ Microbial food contamination ﾿ 7

2.3 ﾿ Mechanism of microbial food contamination ﾿ 18

2.3.0 ﾿ Pre-Harvest/Harvest Contamination of Food ﾿ 19

2.3.1 ﾿ Pre-harvest Factors ﾿ 19

2.3.2 ﾿ Harvest factors ﾿ 21

2.3.4 ﾿ Pre-Slaughter and Slaughter Contamination ﾿ 21

2.4 ﾿ Microbiological food contamination at post harvest/post-slaughter ﾿ 23

2.4.1 ﾿ Food processing/ food preparation factors ﾿ 23

2.4.2 ﾿ Distribution, marketing and storage factors ﾿ 26

2.5 ﾿ Food contamination mechanism in some selected foods ﾿ 27

CHAPTER THREE: MATERIALS AND METHODS ﾿ 30

3.1 ﾿ Study area ﾿ 30

3.2 ﾿ Media used ﾿ 30

3.3 ﾿ Sterilization ﾿ 30

3.4 ﾿ Sample processing ﾿ 31

3.5 ﾿ Physicochemical analysis ﾿ 31

3.6 ﾿ Identification of bacteria ﾿ 31

3.7 ﾿ Gram staining ﾿ 32

3.8 ﾿ Catalase test ﾿ 32

3.8.0 ﾿ Coagulase Test ﾿ 33

3.8.1 ﾿ Citrate Test ﾿ 33

3.8.2 ﾿ Motility test ﾿ 33

3.8.3 ﾿ Urease test ﾿ 33

3.8.4 ﾿ Indole test ﾿ 34

3.8.5 ﾿ Triple Sugar Iron Test ﾿ 34

3.8.6 ﾿ Oxidase Test ﾿ 34

3.9 ﾿ Identification of fungal isolates ﾿ 34

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS    ﾿ 35

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

5.1 ﾿ Discussion    ﾿ 40

5.2 ﾿ Recommendation ﾿ 41

5.3 ﾿ Conclusion ﾿ 42

References ﾿ 43