Assessment of Microbial Quality of Cooked Ready-to-Eat Street Foods Vended in Calabar Metropolis, Nigeria

Introduction: Microbial load in ready-to-eat (RTE) food is a key factor in assessing the quality and safety of food. It also reveals the level of hygiene adopted by food handlers in the course of preparation of such foods.

Purpose: The microbiological quality of ready-to-eat (RTE) street cooked foods vended in Calabar Metropolis were investigated with the aim of assessing the risk of foodborne illness

Methods: Six types of cooked foods samples were collected from six different locations in Calabar Metropolis from three vendor categories; stationary with shade (SWS), stationary without shade (SWOS), and mobile vendors (MV).The samples (432) were analyzed for aerobic plate counts (APC), Enterobacteriaceae counts, Salmonella aureus counts, yeast and mold counts, coliform and Escherichia coli counts.

Results: The food samples from all the vendors had a high level of enteropathogen contamination. MV RTE foods had the highest (P < 0.05) level of contamination, with counts that ranged from 1.70 x10⁶ to 5.0 x10⁶ CFU/g (APC), 0.80 x10⁶ to 4.00 x 10⁶ CFU/g (coliform), 1.20 x10⁶ to 4.00 x10⁶ (yeast and mold), 1.20 x 10⁶ to 4.20 x 10⁶ CFU/g (E. coli), 1.60 x 10⁶ to 5.80 x 10⁶ CFU/g (S. aureus) and 1.10 x 10⁶ to 3.40 x10⁶ CFU/g (Enterobacteriaceae), respectively. SWS RTE foods had the lowest (P < 0.05) counts in coliform (1.30 x 10⁶ to 2.50 x10⁶ CFU/g), yeast and molds (1.30 x 10⁶ to 2.80 x 10⁶ CFU/g) and S. aureus  (1.20 x 10⁶ to 3.60 x 10⁶CFU/g).

Significance: The findings indicated that there was high risk of contracting foodborne illness from the street foods vended in Calabar Metropolis, as the microbial counts of most of the foods were within unacceptable limits, hence the need for implementation of sanitation code and licensing of street food vendors.