ABSTRACT
Background and Aim: Food plays a crucial role in maintaining human health, so this study was started with the goal of determining the bioburden. identifying the bacteria linked to the foods sold and determining their susceptibility to antimicrobail agent
Methods: Two hundred cooked food samples from vendors were collected at random from various areas around Ugbowo, Benin city. Standard techniques such as the plate count method for bacteriological analysis of the food samples were used. The isolates were identified, and their susceptibility to antimicrobial agent was determined by Agar diffusion method.
Results: The mean total plate count of bacteria recorded were 3.8 x 105 cfu/g in rice, 3.7 x105 cfu/g in Beans, 3.6 x 105 cfu/g in yam, 3.3 x 105 cfu/g in moimoi, 3.4 x 105 cfu/g in eba. Two hundred and one bacterial isolates made up of four genera; Bacillus spp, Stapylococcus spp, Pseudomonas spp and Proteus spp and fungi were identified. Most of the bacterial isolates were sensitive to ceftriaxone, erythromycin, co-trimoxacole, ciprofloxacin and penicillins.
Conclusion: The survey found that many of the meals being sold were unsatisfactory, hence pose a public health concern, which posed can be averted by proper care and handling of the food samples to in order to prevent further contamination which may pose a risk to the public health. To prevent a probable outbreak of food-borne diseases brought on by consuming tainted vending-machine meals, there is a need for intensive surveillance.
Keywords: Cooked Food, Aerobic colony count, Contamination, Reservoir, Resistance, and Antibiotics
