Isolation and Identification of Fungi from fast food restaurants in Langa Bazar

Abstract

A total of (218) samples from Eleven different foods were processed between October 2016 and February 2017 which include (Tomato, Chicken meat, red meat, falafel, potato, bread, eggplant, cabbage, celery, cucumber and onion). Samples were collected from 4 different fast food restaurants inoculated on Potato dextrose agar and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. Isolated fungus identified morphologically and microscopically in accordance with standard procedures. Results showed that six fungal genera were associated with the selected fast food restaurants. The isolated fungal genera were Aspergillus sp., Alternaria sp., Mucor sp., Rhizopus sp., Saccharomyces sp., Brettanomyces sp. The number of total colonies in October were 236 and in February were 119 and the number of colonies were higher when cultured on Potato dextrose agar than Sabouraud Dextrose Agar. There was variation in the pattern of occurrence of the fungus in fast foods Aspergillus sp. appears to be the most pathogenic fungi that present in the food samples.