ABSTRACT

Contamination of canned drinks surfaces with foodborne pathogens remains an important public health issue, because it lead to illness if there are malpractices in handling and storage of the product. The microbiological examination of canned drinks were analyzed to determine their level of surface contamination. 27 samples of canned drinks were collected from three different locations (distributor in Umuahia, supermarket in Ahiaeke and kiosk in Bende road) all in Umuahia metropolis. For every store or shop, nine sets of samples were collected, three (3) from the shelf, three (3) from the fridge and three(3) used as control. The isolation, identifications, characterization and microbial counts were done using standard microbiological techniques methods.  All the canned drinks samples examined were contaminated with some bacterial and fungal species namely, Klebsiella species, Bacillus species, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aurues, and fungal isolates were Mucor species and Aspergillus species. The shelf samples have microbial loads from 2.3 x 101 to 6.3 x 101; while the rinsed with water samples (control) range from 1.4 x 101 to 3.2 x 101.The refrigerator samples have microbial loads from 1.1 x 101 to 2.9 x 101 while rinsed with water samples(control) range from 1.1 x 101 to 2.1 x 101. Escherichia coli had the highest percentage occurrence 13(17.7%), followed by staphylococcus species 11(13.0%) and the least was Pseudomonas species 3(5.1%). These finding suggest that most of the canned drinks stored in the open market may constitute sources of microbial food poisoning and public health hazard.