Microbiological quality of selected street vended foods during wet and dry season in parts of Port Harcourt metropolis, Rivers State, Nigeria

Microbiological quality of selected ready-to-eat (RTE) street vended foods (SVF) were determined to evaluate the impact of wet and dry seasons on food safety in 3 locations (Makoba-station 1, Elekahia-station 2 and Rivers State University-station 3). Six food products investigated were roasted plantain (RP), roasted fish (RF), roasted yam (RY), suya (SY), meat pie (MP) and doughnuts (DN). Total Aerobic Count (TAC), Total Coliform Count (TCC), Faecal Coliform Count (FCC), Total Staphylococcus Count (TSC), Total Salmonella Count (TSC2), Total Bacillus Count (TBC), Total Mould Count (TMC) and Total Yeast Count (TYC) were examined. Results revealed that TAC had significantly (p<0.05) highest value of 8.46 log10CFU/g in RF2 with no growth in samples RP2, MP1 and DN2 during the wet season while TAC were isolated in all samples during dry season with a range of 5.18 to 7.44 log10CFU/g. TCC was highest in RF2 (8.04 log10CFU/g) and SY2 (7.33 log10CFU/g) during the wet and dry seasons, respectively. FCC ranged from 6.00 to 8.45 log10CFU/g for samples RF2 and MP1 during wet season while 5.15 to 7.10 log10CFU/g was isolated during dry season. TSC ranged from 6.00 to 8.00 log10CFU/g representing 55.55% growth rate during the wet season while no growth was observed in all the samples during dry season except RP1 (5.62 log10CFU/g) and RF2 (6.76 log10CFU/g). There was Salmonella growth in all the SVF with values ranging from 5.00 to 7.04 log10CFU/g during the dry season with NG in SY1 while TSC2 were only isolated in RF1 and SY2 during wet season with the values of 7.11 log10CFU/g and 7.57 log10CFU/g, respectively. TBC ranged from 6.00 to 8.30 log10CFU/g with NG isolated in samples RP3, RF3, RY2, MP3 and DN1 at wet season while significantly highest value of 6.63 log10CFU/g (SY2) was isolated in SY2 and 61.11% NG during dry season. TMC in all the SVF had higher values during wet season than the dry season. TYC was highest in RY2 (7.81 log10CFU/g) and SY1 (8.76 log10CFU/g) during wet and dry seasons, respectively. The study thus, revealed that seasonal variations and locations of SVF have a great impact on their microbiological quality.