Isolation of Bacteria from Sampled Street-Vended Food in Jos South Local Government, Plateau State of Nigeria

Food safety is a major public health concern as improper food handling could result to food borne illness. This aimed to isolate and identify bacteria and determined microbial load in some selected cooked foods sold by street food vendors in the study area. A Descriptive Cross- Sectional Study Design was adopted and a total of fifteen (15) portion of Jollof rice were randomly purchased from different vendors in Jos South LGA of Plateau State. The samples were transported in ice to the laboratory. The samples were bacteriologically analyzed using spread plate technique and sub-culture. Serial dilution of the sample was carried out after which the first to the eight tube were picked and 1 ml of each sample was pipette into a Nutrient agar. The plates were then incubated for 24hours at 370C, after which they were examined for growth. Sub culture was done using bacteriological agar. All the screened food samples had varying levels of bacterial growth ranging from 297 X 105 to 3.0 X 106 cfu/ml. Ninety percent of the sampled foods had bacterial counts above the acceptable limits (104cfu/ml). Four bacterial species - Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Klebsiella aerogenes and CoNS (Coagulase Negative Staphylococci were isolated from the foods sampled. The findings revealed that street vended foods in the area were unhygienically prepared, handled in manner that exposed to contamination, and were potential vehicles for transmitting food borne illnesses. Therefore, there is need to educate food vendors on practical steps in food handling and hygiene practices to promote food safety, while the local environmental health practitioners should enforce relevant food safety regulations especially the National Environmental Health Practice Regulations, 2024.