Foodborne Pathogens Recovered from Ready-to-Eat Foods from Roadside Cafeterias and Retail Outlets in Alice, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa: Public Health Implications

Mirriam E. Nyenje, Collins E. Odjadjare, Nicoline F. Tanih, Ezekiel Green and Roland N. Ndip
Additional contact information
Mirriam E. Nyenje: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, PMB X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
Collins E. Odjadjare: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, PMB X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
Nicoline F. Tanih: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, PMB X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
Ezekiel Green: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, PMB X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa
Roland N. Ndip: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Faculty of Science and Agriculture, University of Fort Hare, PMB X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa

IJERPH, 2012, vol. 9, issue 8, 1-12

Abstract: This study assessed the microbiological quality of various ready-to-eat foods sold in Alice, South Africa. Microbiological analysis was conducted on 252 samples which included vegetables, potatoes, rice, pies, beef and chicken stew. The isolates were identified using biochemical tests and the API 20E, API 20NE and API Listeria kits; results were analyzed using the one-way-ANOVA test. Bacterial growth was present in all the food types tested; high levels of total aerobic count were observed in vegetables, 6.8 ± 0.07 followed by rice, 6.7 ± 1.7 while pies had the lowest count (2.58 ± 0.24). Organisms isolated included: Listeria spp . (22%), Enterobacter spp. (18%), Aeromonas hydrophila (12%), Klebsiella oxytoca (8%), Proteus mirabilis (6.3%), Staphylococcus aureus (3.2%) and Pseudomonas luteola (2.4%). Interestingly, Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli were not isolated in any of the samples. There was a statistically significant difference ( p

Keywords: street foods; microbial quality; foodborne pathogens; bacterial count; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/8/2608/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/9/8/2608/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:9:y:2012:i:8:p:2608-2619:d:19118

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().