Microbiological quality assessment of foods sold in student’s cafeterias

Oranusi, S. U. and Oguoma, O .I. and Agusi, E. (2013) Microbiological quality assessment of foods sold in student’s cafeterias. Global Research Journal of Microbiology, 3 (1). pp. 1-7.

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Abstract

The microbiological quality of ready-to-eat food (Street foods (SFs) products sold in a University Campus was assessed. A total of forty eight RTE food samples, including coleslaw, fried rice, jollof rice and moi-moi were collected from two food vending sites which serves as the major ready to eat food vending centres to the student community. A total of nine species (spp) of microorganisms including Bacillus spp, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp, Proteus spp, Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus fumigatus, Penicillium spp and Mucor spp were isolated from the food samples. The mean total aerobic plate count, coliform count and fungal count from SITE I range from 2.5 × 103 to 9.1 × 106, 3.2 × 103 to 3.4 × 104, and 6.0 × 102 to 7.3 × 104 respectively. SITE II had aerobic plate count, coliform count and fungal plate count ranging from 2.7 × 103 to 9.8 × 106, 5.2× 103 to 7.8 × 104, and 9.0 × 103 to 9.3 × 106 respectively. Based on the specifications by International Commission for Microbiological Specification for Foods (ICMSF), the level of contaminations was within acceptable microbiological limits except for coleslaw; this could be attributed to extensive handling, mixing and to the fact that it is consumed as raw food. It is recommended that a closer and stringent supervision of ready-to-eat foods sold to students in the University should be carried out by relevant authorities to prevent possible outbreak food borne illness.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Food borne illness; Microbiological quality; Ready-to-eat foods, stringent supervision
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General) Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology Q Science > QR Microbiology
Divisions:	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences
Depositing User:	Mrs Hannah Akinwumi
Date Deposited:	18 Mar 2015 12:03
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2015 12:03
URI:	http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/eprint/4043

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