Bacteriological Profile and Safety of Ready to-consume Street Vended Foods in Shambu Town, Horo Guduru Wollega Zone

Major advisor: Mulisa Jida (PhD)

ABSTRACT

The issue of food safety is a global problem that gets main concern in setting public health policy. Street- vended food has been benefiting both consumers who are in low economic status and vendors by creating job as sources of income. Unless the safety and quality of street vended foods maintained, it becomes a major public health risk due to contamination. A disease caused by food contamination occurs in places where sanitation and hygiene conditions are poor. Hence, this study was initiated with the aim of evaluating bacteriological profile and safety of street vended foods and their handling practices. In this study five different ready-to-eat foods were collected from three Shambu town street vending sites and analyzed for plate count, coliform count, identification of salmonella and S.aureus following standard microbiological methods. Of the total 45 isolates characterized, Bacillus spp (31.43%), Staphylococcus spp (31.43%), Salmonella spp (28.57 %) and E.coli (8.57 %) are the most predominant bacteria from the collected street - vended foods. The total average of the highest mean of bacterial counts (in logCFUgˉ¹±SD ) of food samples were dominated by mesophilic bacteria (5.46±0.012) in „bread", aerobic bacterial spore (3.96±0.029) in „nifiro", Enterobacteriaceae (3.96±0.038) in „bread", coliforms (3.97±0.029),in „potato" and staphylococcus (6.42±0.48) in „potato". The isolated Staphylococcus spp. and Salmonella spp. were highly resistant to ampecillin and amoxicillin but susceptible to cipirofloxin and chloramphenicol. This high load of bacterial count indicates the poor hygiene level of the foods and vendors due to lack of education and training about food-borne diseases and how to prepare and keep the quality and safety of the foods. These vendors have to get training on food hygiene to improve and keep the safety of foods in Shambu town thereby to care the health of the consumers. So it needs regular inspection and attention for the health safety of the customers by concerned bodies.

Keywords: -Food-borne, Pathogen, Vendors, Food Contamination, Shambu