Microbiological Quality And Safety Of Some Selected Street- Vended Food Sat Hagereselam Town, Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia.

Abstract

Street food is defined as “ready-to-eat foods and beverages sold and prepared by vendors or hawkers in streets or other public places .Street- vended food industry has been benefiting both consumers who are in low economic status as well as vendors by creating job opportunity. However, street foods are perceived to be a major public health risk due to contamination by diverse microbes. The aim of this study was to assess microbiological quality and safety of some street-vended foods in Hagereselam town. An experimental cross sectional study design was used to collect samples from street vended foods in Hagereselam town for microbiological quality and safety analysis. A total of 60 street vended food samples (20 bonbolino, 20 sandwiches and 20 sambussa) samples were collected from bus station, Alula and Lsanu vending sites in Hagereselam town using sterile aluminum plates and transported to Mekelle University Microbiology laboratory of Veterinary College. The samples were kept at refrigerator temperature until analysis. Accordingly, 25 g of each of the food samples were homogenized and serial diluted and both morphological and biochemical characterization of the isolates from pure countable colonies was conducted following standard microbiological procedures. Antibiotic susceptibility test for pathogenic bacteria was conducted. Data was analyzed using SPSS software version 20.00. Questionnaire was used to assess the profile of 96 street food vendors. Result of the study showed that 71.9% of vendors were females, 56.3% had primary education, 100 % of the vendors did not use special apparel for their job as street food vendors, 77.1% of the vendors handled food with bare hands, 61.5 % used well water for cleaning of utensils, and 100 % of the vendors wore no hair covering. The mean microbial counts (log CFUg-1) of food samples were dominated by aerobic mesophilic bacteria (5.3 ± 1.2), aerobic bacterial spore (4.2 ±0.7), Lactic acid bacteria (4.2±0.5), Enterobacteriaceae (4 ± 0.7), Coli form (3.8 ± 0.5) Staphylococci (3.4 ± 0.6), yeasts (3.4 ± 0.5) and moulds (2.6 ± 0.5) respectively. Of the total seven bacterial isolates characterized, the predominant isolates were Bacillus spp. (31.9%) followed by Staphylococci spp. (26.9%). Out of the food samples, 21.7% were positive for Staphylococcus aureus and 6.7% samples were positive for Salmonella. In morphological test results, 81.9% of the isolates were gram positive, half of them were rod in shape and 51% of them were motile. The antibiotic resistance patterns of the isolates revealed low number of resistance (7.7%) of S.aureus to Chloramphenicol. Generally, the microbial quality and safety of street-vended food in Hagereselam town was poor. Therefore formal training and awareness creations on street food vendors and consumers are recommended.