ABSTRACT
Ensuring food safety to protect public health remains a significant challenge in both developing and developed countries and food borne illness prevention system will depend on the extent of food safety control in place through food production, processing and distribution, keeping food at safe temperature and using safe water and raw materials. These stages of production are some of the important points determining food safety. The high level of bacterial contamination leading to intoxication and therefore food borne illnesses presents public health risks to consumers. This suggests the need to implement strict hygienic control measures along the food production chain during manufacturing, handling, storage and commercialization of foods. Ninety samples comprising of fifteen Milo (beverage), fifteen golden morn (cereal), fifteen magi (seasoning), fifteen Lucozade boost energy drinks, fifteen Sausages and fifteen noodles (Indomie) were collected from five shops in Lagos, Agbara, and Sango Ogun State, Nigeria. Samples were processed and cultured using pour plate and streak plate technique. Samples were cultured in five media consisting of four selective media and a basal media; Maconkey agar, Mannitol Salt agar, Salmonella Shigella agar, Eosin Methylene Blue agar and Nutrient agar. Differentiation and isolation of various isolates were based on gram-staining technique and biochemical reactions using OXOID MICROBAT TM identification kits. The in vitro assay revealed the presence of five bacteria species namely Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiellia oxytoca, Proteus mirabilis, Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Morganella morganii. Prevalence of the various isolates in the culture were found to be 67.66%, 11.27%, 9.77%, 7.51% and 3.75% respectively. The highest colony count (140.6) was obtained from samples from Agbara while the lowest colony count was obtained from Sango. The mean bacteria load of the isolates was 1.0*107CFU/ml. It was concluded that the hygienic quality of the sampled fast moving consumer products in term of microbiological standards compare favourably with international benchmarks as defined by Codex Alimentarius Commission all the observed ranges of aerobic colony count fall well below the upper threshold of microbial levels for class A products.
