Bacteriological profile, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of the isolates among street vended foods and hygienic practice of vendors in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia: a cross sectional study

Abstract

Background There are numerous advantages offered by street vended foods, but evidence exists that foods exposed for sale on the road side may be contaminated by pathogenic microorganisms. However, information on the bacteriological profile, bacterial load and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of bacterial isolates from street food in Gondar town are lacking. The aim of this study was to assess bacterial profile, bacterial load, and antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of bacterial isolates among street vended foods and also the hygienic practice of vendors in Gondar town, Northwest Ethiopia. Methods Socio-demographic characteristics and the hygienic practices of 24 vendors were collected using structured questionnaire. A total of 72 food samples from four different food items were analyzed and counted by standard aerobic plate count method. Ten grams of each food sample was transferred in to 90 ml of buffered peptone water and homogenized. The homogenates were serially dilute and a volume of 0.1 ml dilution was spread on solid media and incubated at 35-37 °C for 24 h. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was done for isolated species using Muller Hinton agar and data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20.0. Results Seventy two food samples of street vended food were analysed for bacterial pathogens. 44/72 tested positive, a total of 63 isolates were identified as 19 samples contained two pathogens. The total mean aerobic bacterial count was 6.64 × 10 4 CFU/g which is varied from 1 × 10 4 –1.86 × 10 5 CFU/g. S. aureus is the most frequent isolate 34 ( 53.96%) followed by E.coli 15(23.8%), Enterobacter species 10(15.87%) and Citrobacter species 4(6.3%). Gentamycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, ciprofloxacin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole were found to be the most effective antimicrobials against all isolates but the enterobactereaceae were resistant to ampicillin and Ceftaziidime and S.aureus were resistant to penicillin. Conclusion The results of this study showed that, the majority of street-vended food items in Gondar were contaminated with one or more different pathogenic bacteria. The presence of these bacteria in foods could lead to potential health problems for consumers. Therefore, health education as well as training in food safety and hygienic handling is required for food handlers to minimize contamination and the likelihood of people falling ill.

Bacterial contaminants and their antibiotic susceptibility patterns in ready‐to‐eat foods vended in Ogun state, Nigeria

“…Previous reports of counts >10 4 CFU per gram in RTE foods indicate unsatisfactory levels which could pose severe health risks to consumers (Samuel 2012; Okareh and Erhahon 2015; Amare et al . 2019).…”

Risk factors associated with retail meat vendors in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo

“…In addition, 60% had long fingers nails, and 64% wore jewelry (Reddi et al, 2015). Only 20.8% of vendors covered their hair in Ethiopia (Amare et al, 2019). Although in Nigeria, vendors were aware of keeping their bodies and clothes clean, they did not consider as necessities to wear hair protection, to remove hand and arm jewelry and to keep nails short (Omemu and Adejoru, 2008).…”

“…In Ethiopia, food handler has been reported to suffer from diseases like diarrhoea, cholera, typhoid fever (Tesfaye, 2018). Studies showed that pathogens were frequently isolated in contaminated street food (Shaltot et al, 2015;Amare et al, 2019). Thus, foods handlers may lead to cross-contamination of food with bacteria when they suffer from specifics diseases.…”

Multiple-Antibiotic Resistance and Presence of CTX-M Genes among Enterobacteriaceae Isolates from Different Sources in Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria

“…Bacteriological characteristics were determined following available standard [7] and the characteristic features such as the phenotypic and biochemical characteristics were studied to screen out non-enterobacteriaceae isolates.…”