ABSTRACT

Fufu. a product of fermented cassava root tubers commonly vended as ready to eat food, was investigated for the presence of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica type Typhi in samples of the food product (fufu) collected from some markets around Umudike in lkwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. The total viable count was accessed by spread plate method on nutrient agar plate.The samples were streaked on MacConkey agar plate. Mannitol salt agar plate and Salmonella-Shigella agar plate to detect the presene of STaphylococcu aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella enteric Type Typhi respectively. A  total of 100 hundred fufu samples was collected over a period of two months from three different markets; namely Umudike, Ahiaeke and Ndoro. Samples from Ahiaeke yielded 23 staphylococcus aureus isolates,7 Escherichia coli isolates and 1 Salmonella tvphi isolate Umudike yielded 14, 4 and 4. while Ndoro yielded 20, 12 and 4, respectively. Of all the samples anal ted the highest number of Staphylococcus aureus contaminated fufu came from Ahiaeke 23(40.4%). while samples from Umudike yielded the lowest number 14(24.6%) of isolates. In all the total number of Staphylococcus species isolated was 57, Escherichia coli 23 and Salmonella Typhi 9, while the total viable count ranged from 6x10⁵- l.8x10⁸ cfu/ml. The results of this study suggests the need for increased public health education for producers and vendors of hawked ready to eat foods.