ABSTRACT

Ready-to-eat foods can be described as foods that can be bought directly from street vendors or hawkers and are consumed at the point of sale or at later time without further treatment. Safe food is a basic human right despite the fact many foods are frequently contaminated with naturally occurring pathogenic micro-organisms which cannot be detected organoleptically. The main object was to determine Microbial load of ready-to-eat foods sold on and around Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU) campus A total of eight (8) samples, jollof rice and moi moi were purposively collected from four different eateries in the morning with sterile container and were taken under aseptic condition to the laboratory for microbiological and nutrient analysis using standard procedure. Proximate parameters showed that, Dry matter for jollof rice ranged from (50.65 g/100g – 54.15 mg/100g), moisture (41.85 g/100g - 49.35 g/100g), crude protein (2.44 g/100g - 3.37 g/100g), fat (0.62 g/100g-0.82 g/100g), crude fiber (0.62 g/100g - 0.82 g/100g), ash (0.64%-1.05%), carbohydrate (45.50 g/100g -53.67 g/100g), energy (202.84 Kcal to 230.83 Kcal). Proximate for Moi-moi ranged from Dry matter (37.48 g/100g – 48.06 g/100g), moisture (51.94%-62.52%), crude protein (6.45%-11.71%), fat (3.95%- 6.93%) crude fiber (0.80% - 2.02%), ash (0.80% - 2.27%), carbohydrate (18.04 g/100g -34.29 g/100g), (160.98 Kcal – 203.13 Kcal). The minerals composition of the jollof rice revealed that calcium (7.73 g/100g – 10.28 g/100g), phosphorus (4.86 g/100g– 6.22 g/100g), potassium (4.86 g/100g-13.54 g/100g), iron (0.89 g/100g – 2.67 g/100g), zinc (2.44 g/100g – 5.09 g/100g), magnesium (0.96  g/100g – 7.55 g/100g), sodium, (4.77 g/100g -9.43 g/100g). Mineral composition for Moi-moi samples revealed that Calcium (0.89 g/100g – 3.11 g/100g), phosphorus (19.04 g/100g – 22.56 g/100g), potassium (75.32 g/100g – 80.23 g/100g), iron (0.77 g/100g – 1.19 g/100g), zinc (3.16 g/100g – 3.76 g/100g), magnesium (2.25-4.13), sodium (0.77 g/100g – 1.34 g/100g). The vitamin content for jollof rice samples ranged from (mg/100g). Vitamin A (1.01 µg/100g – 1.44 µg/100g), thiamin (0.05 g/100g – 0.11), riboflavin (0.00– 0.07), niacin (0.12 g/100g – 0.26 g/100g), vitamin (2.44 g/100g – 4.86). Vitamin content for the Moi-moi sample ranged: Vitamin A (1.28 g µg/g – 2.72 µg/g), thiamin (0.13 µg/g – 0.17 µg/g), riboflavin (0.30 g/100g – 0.43 g/100g), niacin (0.12 g/100g -0.26 g/100g), vitamin C (2.44 4.86). The vitamin content for moi-moi samples ranged; Vitamin A (1.28 g µg/g – 2.72 µg/g), thiamin (0.13 g/100g – 0.17 g/100g), riboflavin (0.30 g/100g – 0.43 g/100g), niacin (0.30 g/100g -0.72 g/100g), Vitamin C (8.99 g/100g -12.81 g/100g). The microbial isolation revealed strains of Staphylococus aureus, Websiella spp, bacillus spp, Aspergillus spp, E.coli, Mucor spp which were found to be dominant in all the sample. All the food samples had an acceptable microbial load and can be consumed when handled very well without health adverse effect