Microbial Assessment Of Tomatoes (Lycopersiconesculentum) Sold In Umuahia, Nigeria:- Osuchukwu chibuike c.

ABSTRACT

The project work conducted microbial assessments of fresh tomato fruit sold in Umuahia. Nine fresh tomato fruit samples (three sample from each of the three studied markets) were analysised for microbial load and Flora. Obtained results show mean bacteria load of 5.70×10⁶ cfu/g and fungi load of 1.19×10⁴cfu/g with ranges of 3.13×10⁶cfu/g to 1.17×10⁷cfu/g and 7.0×10³cfu/g to1.57×10⁴cfu/g respectively. The bacteria Flora shows the presence of disease species of bacteria and fungi including Staphylococcus, Bacillus, pseudomonas, lactobacillus, E. Coli, Enterobacter, and Proteus as well Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Rhizomes and Yeast. There were variations in the relative occurrence of the bacteria and fungi isolates. Staphylococcus and Bacillus had the highest occurrence of 100% and 55% respectively while E.coli and Enterobacter had the lowest occurrence of 22.2% each.  Similarly, Asparagus and Yeast recorded the highest occurrence of 66.7% in the four fomites. While Rhizomes, Fusarium and Penicillium recorded the lowest of 22.2% each. It was observed that the microbial load and Flora of the fresh tomato indicate high level of contamination possible from source which include the environment, used materials and poor personal hygiene of handlers.