Microbial Quality Of Frozen Chicken Parts:- Horsfall, Alaenetona-a E.

ABSTRACT

Twenty samples of four different parts of chicken parts yeast and fungi load. The samples Umuahia main market, Abia State of Nigeria. The chicken parts examined were the gizzards, wings, laps and legs. These parts were contaminated with Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella sp. Fungal contaminants isolated include Penicillium sp and Aspergillus flavus. The Total Viable Count ranged from 2.4xl02 - 12.5xlO2Cfu/ml, Total Coliform Count ranged from 2.0xl04 - 9.9xl02 Cfu/ml and Total Fungal Count ranged from Staphylococcus aureus (20%), while the lowest percentage occurrence was Pseudomonas aeruginosa (4.54%). The total number of fungal isolates in this study was 44 with the highest percentage occurrence observed for Saccaromyces cerevisae (45.45%) and lowest percentage observed for Aspergillusflavus (20.45%). These finding suggest that most ofthe frozen chicken parts stored in the open market may constitute sources of bacterial food poisoning consequently public health hazard.