MICROBIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF DRIED MIXED FRUIT SLICES

ABSTRACT

The term “dried fruit” encompasses a range of different processing methods. Traditional, conventional dried fruits such as dates, figs, prunes, raisins, apricots, apples and pears have no added sugar or juice and are formed by the removal of water. For this research, four different samples of fruit slices were purchased at Jara, Benin City, Nigeria. A total of seven bacterial isolates and two fungal isolates were obtained detected in the samples. The bacterial isolates were characterized and identified using morphological and biochemical methods. From the result obtained, the total heterotrophic bacterial count ranged from 5.75 log10 cfu/g to 5.98 log10 cfu/g for Banana/coconut crunch and coconut/cashew/pineapple respectively. The total coliform count ranged from 4.25 log10 cfu/g to 4.77 log10 cfu/g in baked coconut and fruit/nut samples. The fungal count in this study ranged from 3.9308 log10cfu/g to 4.47log10 cfu/g in banana/coconut crunch and fruit/nut mix samples respectively. Using standard cultural and morphological characterization, the microorganisms obtained were Pseudomonas sp, Cronobacter sp, Bacillus cereus, Providentia sp, Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus sp and Saccaromyces sp. The isolates obtained in this study were multiple antibiotic resistant isolates. They were resistant to perfloxacin, gentamycin, amoxicillin, ciproflaxin and septrin but were susceptible to ofloxacin. Chitosan however demonstrated stronger inhibitory activity on the bacterial isolates except Bacillus sp which showed a complete resistance to chitosan. Government needs to draw a food safety control policy and develop stringent quality control measures for such products at the market place and stores.