Isolation And Identification Of Bacteria From Selected Street Foods Vended Around Umudike, Abia State

ABSTRACT

Safety of food is a basic requirement of food quality. A total of 13 street food samples (Jollof rice, egwusi soup and salad) were randomly purchased from five different vendors in Umudike, Abia state and were transported to the laboratory. The samples were bacteriologically analyzed using pour plate technique and sub-culture. All the screened food samples had varying levels of bacterial growth ranging from 1.0 × 105 to 2.9 × 106 cfu/ml which was significant, ninety percent of the sampled foods had bacterial counts above the acceptable limits (104 cfu.ml) and 10% of the samples had bacterial counts less than (< 104 cfu/ml) which was less significant. Six bacteria species were isolated from the foods sampled. The prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus isolated was 17.1%, Bacillus cereus 22.9%, Vibrio spp 34.2%, Salmonella spp 17.1% and Shigella spp 8.6%. More than one pathogenic micro organisms were isolated from jollof rice. The findings revealed that street foods are potential vehicles for transmitting food borne illness thus the need to develop practical strategies geared toward street food safety.

TABLE CONTENTS

Title page ﾿ i

Certification ﾿ ii

Dedication ﾿ iii

Acknowledgments ﾿ iv

Table of contents ﾿ v

List of tables ﾿ vii

Abstract ﾿ viii

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 ﾿ Introduction ﾿ 1

1.1 ﾿ Introduction ﾿ 1

1.2 ﾿ Aims and Objectives ﾿ 4

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 ﾿ Literature Review ﾿ 5

2.1 ﾿ Food Hygiene ﾿ 7

2.2 ﾿ Factors that Contribute to Food Borne Illness ﾿ 7

2.3 ﾿ Food borne disease ﾿ 14

2.4 ﾿ Pre-disposing factors to food-borne illnesses ﾿ 14

2.5 ﾿ prevention of food-borne illness ﾿ 15

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 ﾿ MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1 ﾿ Materials ﾿ 18

3.1.1 ﾿ Sample collection ﾿ 18

3.2 ﾿ Methods ﾿ 18

3.2.1 ﾿ Culture of sample (pour plate) ﾿ 19

3.2.3 ﾿ Sub-culturing of the culture ﾿ 19

3.2.4 ﾿ Gram’s staining ﾿ 20

3.2.5 ﾿ Catalase test ﾿ 20

3.2.6 ﾿ Methyl red test ﾿ 20

3.2.7 ﾿ Citrate utilization test ﾿ 21

3.2.8 ﾿ Oxidase test ﾿ 21

3.2.9 ﾿ Vogas Proskaeur test ﾿ 21

3.2.10 ﾿ Coagulase test ﾿ 22

3.2.11 ﾿ Indole test ﾿ 22

3.2.12 ﾿ Motility test ﾿ 23

3.2.13 ﾿ Statistical analysis ﾿

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 ﾿ Results ﾿ 24

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 ﾿ Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendation ﾿

5.1 ﾿ Discussion ﾿ 30

5.2 ﾿ Conclusion ﾿ 31

5.3 ﾿ Recommendations ﾿ 32

REFERENCES

APPENDICES