Microbiological Evaluation of Packaged Pineapple Juice Marketed in Kaduna Metropolis

Abstract

The microbial quality of ten brands of pineapple drinks sold in retail outlets in Kaduna, Nigeria was assessed by microbiological routine methods. All the pineapple drinks tested had high level of microbial contamination. The bacteria count was between 1.5 x 10⁵ and 5.3 x10⁶ colony forming units (cfu) ml^-1 while the mould/ yeast count was between 2.2 x 10⁴ and 5.2 x 10⁵ spore forming units (sfu) ml^-1. The bacteria species detected consisted of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli Enterobacter aerogenes, Bacillus subtilis, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The mould/yeast includes Penicillum spp., Candida sp, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. The susceptibility pattern of Staph. aureus, E. coli, Enterobacter aerogenes and Ps. aeruginosa isolated from the pineapple drinks showed that Ps. aeruginosa showed complete resistance to some of the antibiotics. The results are discussed in the light of health hazards posed by microbiologically poor pineapple drinks.

Keywords: Microbiological evaluation, packaged pineapple drinks, marketed

Nigerian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, Vol. 8 No 1 pp. 281 - 287 (September 2010)