Abstract

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Ready-to-eat foods are widely available in public places including tertiary institutions. The safety of the foods is often compromised by poor hygiene and inadequate sanitary facilities and can have debilitating effects on human health. Unfortunately, the microbiological quality of foods sold at Nigerian universities is rarely routinely assessed. Food samples from the cafeteria of a Nigerian private University, the surfaces on which they are prepared and served and stool samples from the food handlers were assessed for microbiological quality using standard microbiological procedures. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Microbial counts of foods that were sampled ranged from 0.1 x 106 cfu/g for hot dog to 4.13 x 106 cfu/g for rice. The highest number of isolates (19/51, 37.3%) was from the hands of food handlers while the least number (6/51, 11.8%) was from swabbed surfaces. The presence of Burkholderia cepacia, Raoultella ornithinolytica and Klebsiella pneumoniae from the samples is indicative of poor microbiological safety of ready-to-eat food and suggests unhygienic practices by the food handlers. Active surveillance of ready-to-eat foods is required to ensure food safety.

Keywords: Food safety, microbiological quality, poor hygiene, sanitation, ready-to-eat foods.