Abstract

Hammed Olla, Harshanti O. and Abubakar Bukar

Twelve (12) different food types consisting of six (6) fully processed and six (6) minimally processed ready – to – eat foods sourced from different areas of Kano metropolis were analysed for the presence of enteropathogenic bacteria from June – August, 2009. Enumeration of aerobic mesophilic bacteria using the aerobic plate count (APC) revealed that the mean count for all foods examined except zobo drink, exceeded the maximum acceptable limit (105 cfu/g/ml) set by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. The highest mean count of 1.60 x 107 cfu/g was obtained for tomato (minimally processed food), while the least count of 2.49 x 104 cfu/ml was recorded for zobo drink (fully processed food). Out of a total of 60 food samples analysed, Escherichia coli recorded the highest frequency of occurrence of 24 (46.6%), followed by V. cholerae with 15 (25.0%) while Salmonella typhi recorded the least occurrence rate of 6 (10.0%). Overall, the fully processed foods were observed to be less contaminated with enteropathogenic bacteria than the minimally processed foods. The results indicated that most of the ready – to – eat food samples examined in this study did not meet bacteriological quality standards. The implications of the results on human and environmental health are discussed.