ABSTRACT
Suya is a traditional barbecued meat product which is produced from boneless or deboned meat and spiced up using vegetable oil, various spices, peanut cake, salt and other flavors. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize bacteria and fungi associated with hawked suya meat in Benin City. The return per naira invested (0.58) showed that every one naira invested in the business generated a net return of 58kobo, amounting to about 58% returns, in an environment like Benin City, where the production of suya is relatively low, compared to northern parts of the country with larger population of Hausas. Suya samples were collected from three different vendors at three different locations (Akpakpava, Uselu, and New Benin) in Benin Edo State. Upon collection, samples were wrapped in sterile aluminum foil paper to prevent contamination and immediately transported to the laboratory for analysis. Four fungal organisms were isolated and were suspected to be Mucor species, Penicillium species, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. AKP had a count of 2.1×102 Cfu/g, USE had a count of 3.3×102 Cfu/g and NEW B had a count of 3.1×102 Cfu/g. Six bacteria organisms were isolated and were suspected to be E. coli. Isolate 1, Salmonella sp. Isolate 2, Staphylococcus aureus. Isolate 3, Bacillus sp. Isolate 4, Pseudomona sp. Isolate 5, Shigella sp. Isolate 6. it is observed that bacterial load of hawked suya from Uselu had the highest mean heterotrophic count of 4.72cfu/g, followed by samples from New Benin with a mean heterotrohic count of 4.66cfu/g and Akpakpava with a mean heterotrohic count of 4.64cfu/g in that order. Meat basically contains all the nutrients necessary for microbial growth and metabolism, making it susceptible to microbial contamination. Given that suya meat is an excellent source of the protein needed to build the human body and repair worn-out tissues, appropriate measures should be taken to prevent microbial contamination.
