Hazards and Risks to Consumers’ Health Caused by Popsicles on Salvador Beaches – Bahia State

Abstract

| Introduction:Beaches are a place for interaction and leisure, as well as a scenery for the provision of services, including the street food trade. In this segment, different workers with different type of foods are included, especially the popsicles. Methods: This study aimed to characterize microbiologically the popsicles commercialized on the beaches of Salvador, Bahia State. A cross-sectional study was carried out on 13 beaches, with the application of semistructured questionnaires to 33 vendors to characterize microbiologically the popsicles sold on the beaches of Salvador, Bahia State, and the collecting of 198 samples, which were submitted to analysis: counting of Psychrotrophic microorganisms and coagulase-positive staphylococci, estimation of the Most Likely Number of total and thermolerant Coliforms/Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp research. Results: The results showed that in the microbiological profile, most of the samples were in compliance with the standards. However, 34.3% (68) of non-compliance were recorded, including contamination by the various microorganisms studied, except for Salmonella spp., which was not identified. Conclusion:The study identified risks to the costumer's health, given the contamination in the products, for both groups of sellers.