ABSTRACT

This study was undertaken to investigate the microbiological quality of a type of vended food such as moi-moi. Five samples of moi-moi were randomly collected from vendors in cafeteria and restaurants in MOUAU's compounds and environs and analysed using standard microbial techniques. From the result obtained, microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Aspergi/lus spp, Salmonella typhimurium, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Fusarium spp. Bacillus cereus, Proteus mirabilis, Rhizopus spp, Penicillium spp, Mucor spp were identified. The mean bacteria load observed varied from 17.33±1.15 x 10° cfu/g to 77.67±4.73 x 10° cfu/g while the mean fungal count varied from 1.67±0.57 x 10° cfu/g to 7.67±1.53 x 10° cfu/g in the moi-moi samples. The result of the study portrayed that all the moi-moi samples analyzed were heavily contaminated, indicating the non enforcement of inspection act and lack of maintenance of standard relation to hygiene quality of moi-moi sold in MOUAU environments. It is suggested that proper hygienic and sanitary practices can help to reduce the risk of microbial contamination of moi-moi sold in the institution environment and also proper monitoring of the environment were the moi-moi is being prepared is essential.