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Assessment of Bacterial Contamination in Ready-to-Eat Fruits and Vegetables Sold at Oja-Oba Market, Ilorin, Nigeria


A.E Ajiboye

Abstract

Assessment of bacterial contamination was carried out on ready to eat fruits and vegetables sold in Oja-Oba market, Ilorin. Nine (9) samples of two (2) different fruits (watermelon & pawpaw) and vegetable (carrot) were collected randomly from different stationery vendors. Analyses of total bacterial count was carried done on all samples, selective/differential media was used to enumerate total coliform count, total Staphylococcus count and total Salmonella count using 10-fold serial dilution and plate count method. Pure colonies were isolated using streak plate method and subjected to biochemical test using standard procedure. Ten (10) antibiotics were used for susceptibility test against the biochemical tests using disk diffusion method. Mean microbial load ranged from 60.17 ± 3.10 x 10⁴ - 158.67 ± 6.90 x 10⁴ cfu/ml for vendor A; 61.83 ± 2.60 x 10⁴ - 144.33 ± 4.24 x 10⁴ cfu/ml for vendor B and 56.83 ± 3.53 x 10⁴ - 88.50 ± 3.10 x 10⁴ cfu/ml for vendor C. Total coliform count ranged from 7.80 ± 1.10 x 10⁴ - 26.70 ± 2.82 x 10⁴ cfu/ml, total Staphylococcus count ranged from 5.00 ± 0.24 x 10⁴ - 21.17 ± 3.06 x 10⁴ cfu/ml and total Salmonella count ranged from 8.84 ± 1.18 x 10⁴ - 11.67 ± 1.41 x 10⁴ cfu/ml. Antibiotics susceptibility test ranged from 10.00 ± 0.00 – 26.50 ± 0.21mm. Ciprofloxacin and gentamycin had an average diameter of zone of inhibition at 24.50 ± 0.71 and 26.50 ± 0.21mm respectively. The analysis has shown that ready to eat fruits and vegetables sold in Oja-Oba Market contain considerable numbers of pathogenic bacteria.


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eISSN: 1119-5096
print ISSN: 1119-5096