A Study of Food Microorganism which are involved in Food Borne Illness

Abstract

Food borne diseases remain responsible for high levels of morbidity and mortality in the general population, but particularly for at-risk groups, such as infants and young, children, the elderly and the immuno compromised. In order to reduce the incidence and economic consequences of food borne diseases, the WHO Department of Food Safety has been assisting the Member States to establish and strengthen their programmes for assuring the safety of food from production to final consumption. In the area around East West University, street vended food is very popular among the students which are Microbiologically risks in food. The street vended food is relatively cheap. But the food is not very hygienic. Data from East West University medical center showed that a lot of students suffer from diarrhea, dysentery, viral hepatitis and enteric fever. In this study a total of 3 different food items (Sugar cane, pakura, piazu) were tested to see the contamination level. The food samples were first separately soaked in saline water for an hour. Then the liquid portion was the filtered. After that measured quantities of the liquid portion from each sample was inoculated in nutrient media and selective media (Nutrient Agar, MacConkey Agar, TCBS Agar, XLD Agar and SS agar). The bacterial growths in the media plates were checked. The colony morphology gave us a rough idea about what kinds of bacteria were present.. The colonies from all the plates were taken and biochemical tests were perfonned on them to identify the different bacteria. For further confirmation of the identity of the bacteria, agglutination test for serotyping was performed in which specific antibody was used to identify the specific bacteria. Among the food items tested pakura showed the highest level of contamination with bacteria including E. coli, Salmonella and Shigella and also coliform contamination .. Street vendors lack access to clean water, toilet facilities and operate under poor hygienic conditions. The government should take steps to ensure that the standard of safety of street vended food. The , government authorities must enforce regulations during the preparation and selling of street vended foods.