Bacteriological Quality of Vegetable Salads Sold at Restaurants Within Okada Town, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: my current research is focusing on antibiotic sensitivity profile bacterial isolates from surface water and groundwater. Also researching on water quality index on these surface and groud water View project Abstract: Eighteen samples of vegetable salads sold from three restaurants located at Okada town, Edo State were collected and their bacteriological attributes were investigated using routine methods. The mean heterotrophic and coliform counts recorded for the salad samples ranged from 1.46×10 4 to 2.80 ×10 4 CFU/g, and 1.46 ×10 4 to 2.84 ×10 4 CFU/g for food centre A. THC and TCC counts (1.74 ×10 4 to 2.36 ×10 4 CFU/g and 1.36 ×10 4 to 2.10 ×10 4 CFU/g, respectively were obtained for vegetable salads collected from Eatery B. Microbial counts for salads obtained from food service center C varied from 2.08×10 4 to 2.60 ×10 4 CFU/g and 1.12 ×10 4 to 2.90 ×10 4 CFU/g for THC and TCC, respectively. The differences between the mean bacterial counts were statistically insignificant (P>0.01). Twelve non hemolytic bacterial isolates were identified; Acinetobacter sp., Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mirabilis, Serratia marcescens, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Micrococcus leutus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Citrobacter freundii, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca. E. aerogenes had the highest percentage of occurrence (56%) amongst the isolates. It is recommended that sellers and food handlers within the respective restaurants should make conscious efforts to decontaminate and properly handle the vegetables prior to its salad preparation.