Public Health Consequences of Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination of Ready to Eat Food/ Snacks from Some Selected Retail Outlets on Campus of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Authors

  • Obioma Azounwu Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Author
  • Nnenna Ihua Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Sciences, Rivers State University, Nkpolu, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Author
  • Ikoko Ijeoma Eberechukwu Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Sciences, Rivers State University, Nkpolu, Port Harcourt, Nigeria Author

Keywords:

Public Health, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Health Education, Health Risk Assessment, Ready to eat Food/Snacks, Campus, HACCP

Abstract

Campus lifestyle is seemingly always characterized with doing things at ease without stress thus; consumption of ready to eat food is a common life style among students on campus with much interest on convenience rather than its safety and quality. Food borne illness is a major challenge to the health of the public; it has significantly contributed to the cost of health related outcome globally. 
Annually, millions of illnesses across the world could literally be attributed to the consumption of contaminated foods. Ingestion of contaminated ready to eat foods has been documented to serve as a strong vehicle for transmission of numerous pathogens and food borne outbreak. An observational descriptive study was explored to evaluate the safety standard and bacteriological quality of two 
common ready to eat foods (meat pie and moi-moi) from four different selected retail snacks outlets on campus. This will further help to ascertain their public health implication among the unsuspected public. Samples were collected from the four selected retail points, examined using conventional microbiological methods for the isolation and identifications of the implicated pathogens. Graphpad 
calculator was used to analyse data for mean, standard deviation and one way ANOVA at 0.05 were also explored respectively. Seven bacteria isolates were identified from the ready to eat snacks. The result of the isolation based on frequency and prevalence rate revealed that Staphylococcus aureuswas the highest and most predominant amongst the isolated organisms 65 (46.4%); followed by 
Proteus spp. 27 (19.3%), then Escherichia spp. 21 (15%) whereas, Enterobacter spp. 4 (2.9%) had the least respectively. Based on the location sampled, Location 1 had the highest prevalence rate (57.1%) while others had same rates (14.3%). ANOVA showed no indication of statistical significance difference (p>0.05) between the four different locations.. However, the application of hazard analysis critical control point at all stages of food preparation and handling will be helpful,as a good pathway towards enhancing food safety in our campuses and communities at large

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Published

2024-03-01

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How to Cite

Azounwu, O., Ihua, N., & Eberechukwu, I. I. (2024). Public Health Consequences of Pathogenic Bacterial Contamination of Ready to Eat Food/ Snacks from Some Selected Retail Outlets on Campus of Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Toxicology Digest, 2(1), 47-60. https://toxicologydigest.org.ng/index.php/home/article/view/14

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