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ABSTRACT
The microbial quality of hawked Akara from the selected markets in Benin City was analysed. A total of 12 samples were obtained from Ring road market, New Benin market and Santana market in Benin City and plated on different media. The determination of hawked Akara samples by cultural and morphological characteristics showed the predominance and their percentage occurrences of bacteria such as Staphyoloccus aureus (16.7%), Klebsiella spp (22.2%), Lactobacillus casei (5.6%), Pseudomonas spp (19.4%), Salmonella spp (8.3% ) and Escherichia coli(27.8%)) while fungal isolates were Aspergillus niger (25%),Fusarium spp (22.2%), Rhizopus spp (16.7%), Yeast (13.9) and Penicillium spp (22.2%). The highest bacterial counts range from 1.34 × 104 cfu/g to 2.42 × 104 cfu/g with a mean of 1.69× 104 cfu/g from Ringroad market, Coliform counts with the highest value range from 1.72 × 104 cfu/g to 2.19 × 104cfu/g with a mean of 1.97 × 104cfu/g from New Benin market, Salmonella Shigella counts ranged from 1.22 × 104 cfu/g to 1.95 × 104 cfu/g with a mean of 1.75 ×104 cfu/g from Ring road market, and fungal counts range from 1.38 × 104 cfu/g to 2.49 × 104 cfu/g with the highest mean of 1.89 ×104 cfu/g from New Benin market. The study revealed that Ring road and New Benin market had the highest microbial load than Santana market and this could be from the handlers, personal hygiene of the vendors, salubrious environments, from the grinding machine, unwashed utensils and contaminated water.
