Abstract:
This study assessed the microbiological quality and safety of various ready-to-eat foods of community school students prepared at home. Microbiological analysis was conducted on 170 samples which included vegetables 18(10.58%), rice 24(14.11%), spaghetti 17(10%), firfir76 (44.70) %), legumes 26(15.29%), and meat 9(5.29%).The isolates were identified following the standard microbiological methods and data was analyzed using the one-way-ANOVA test. Bacterial growth was present in all the food types evaluated , high mean total aerobic count were observed in meat 5.44 log CFUg_1followed by vegetables, 5.27log CFUg_1while rice had the lowest count(4.03logCFUg_1).Bacillus(42.58%), S.aureus (15.18%),Pseudomonas,(3.79%),Micrococcus(22.41%),Entrococus(12.5%), Aeromonas (1.33%), Alcaligens (1.61%) and Acintobactor (0.56%), were microbial isolates included in this study. Fortunately, Salmonella spp. were not isolated from spaghetti, meat and rice food samples. The results indicated that most of the ready-to-eat food samples examined in this study did not meet the NSW, 2009 bacteriological quality standards, therefore posing potential risks to students. This should draw attention of the parents, the school administrators and others responsible personnels to ensure that food quality and safety standards should improved to curtain foodborne infections.
