ABSTRACT
The microbial population of fruit salads produced and consumed in the University of Benin, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, was evaluated in the areas of the Uniben main gate, the Ekosodin back gate, the anatomy gate, and the June 12 Uniben buka. Using cultural medium and serial dilution for the isolation and identification of bacteria and fungal count loads in salads sold in Benin City, the microbiological quality of the salads prepared and consumed was assessed. Five salad samples in total were randomly selected from the university of Benin's five locations in Benin City. A 1 millilitre aliquot of the suitable dilution from every polluted water sample was plated in potato dextrose agar for fungal isolation and in nutrient agar for bacteria isolation.
The total number of heterotrophic bacteria and total number of fungi were examined for each. The five samples showed coli developing and a mean total aerobic plate count.
Counts for bacteria range from 1.949log cfu/g to 2.885log cfu/g, and counts for fungi range from 1.1log cfu/g to 2.3log cfu/g. Three fungus isolates and five distinct bacterial isolates were found to contain Salmonella, Shigella, E. Coli, Bacillus spp., and Staphylococcus
Aspergillus niger, Fusarium spp., Aspergillus spp., and Spp, in that order.
The statistical analysis of the microbial counts, conducted at a 5% level of significance, revealed no significant difference (p<0.05) between the mean bacterial and fungal counts. Concern should be expressed if faeces include the indicator bacterium Escherichia coli.
Adoption of good manufacturing practices in the salads hazard analysis critical' control.
point (HACCP) are necessary to prevent occurrence of food borne infection. Thus, this study revealed the likelihood of a very high risk associated with the consumption of fruit salads within university of Benin, Benin City.
