Microbiological Quality and Hygiene status of Food and Water Served by street vendors near a busy Bus Stand in South Indian City

Pilot Study - Microbiological Quality and Hygienic status of Food and Water Served by street vendors near busy Bus Stand in South Indian City

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Background

In India, the street food  has gained more importance over the past years due to urbanization and it cannot be separated from the day to day life of many due to its easy availability and affordability.  Though the taste and enthinic qualities are rich in these street foods, the hygiene status is always a concern for the most. With this background we were interested to study the Microbiological load and hygiene status of the food and water served by the street vendors.  

Methods

A total of 4 street vendors serving evening foods near a busy bus stand in a south Indian city were inducted into the study, which includes 3 evening food stall serving prepared food and a fresh cut fruits stall. Five different samples were collected from each of the study participants, includes hand swabs from the food handlers, utensil swabs, prepared food/ fresh cut fruits, drinking water and washing water (used for hand wash and washing utensils). Washing water was not collected for fresh cut fruits vendor. The content of swabs were extracted aseptically in 1 ml of physiological saline and 1ml of water samples were directly used.  10g of prepared food and cut fruits were homogenized with 90ml of dilute peptone water (1:10). Dilutions were used when necessary. Standard plate counting technique was followed for the detection of total microbial load and VRBA was used for detection of coliforms and confirmed by biochemical tests.

Results

Of the five categories of samples collected heavy microbial load was observed in water used for washing purpose followed by water used for drinking purpose.

No	Samples	Hand swabs 1	Hand swabs 2	Utensil swab	Prepared food	Drinking water	Washing water
1.     Evening Street Food Stall 1
	Total Plate Count	152cfu	10cfu	1200cfu	No growth	2.5lakh cfu/ml	>5lakh cfu/ml
	Coliform count	6cfu	not grown	not grown	not grown	not grown	500cfu/ml
	E. coli	present	Absent	absent	absent	absent	absent
2.     Evening Street Food Stall 2
	Total Plate Count	30cfu	10cfu	1.25lakh cfu	30cfu/g	1.4lakh cfu/ml	> 5lakh fu/ml
	Coliform count	Not grown	Not grown	3cfu	2cfu/g	not grown	500cfu/ ml
	E. coli	absent	Absent	present	present	absent	absent
3.     Evening Street Food Stall 3
	Total Plate Count	No growth	2cfu	500cfu	No growth	> 5 lakh cfu/ml	> 5 lakh cfu/ml
	Coliform count	Not grown	Not grown	not grown	Not grown	20cfu/ml	35 cfu/ ml
	E. coli	absent	Absent	absent	absent	absent	present
4. Evening Street Fruit Stall (Fresh Cut Fruits)					Fruit
	Total Plate Count	600cfu	170cfu	76000 cfu/ml	> 5lakh cfu/g	1.6 lakh cfu/ml
	Coliform count	Not grown	Not grown	Not grown	26000cfu/ g	Not grown
	E. coli	absent	Absent	absent	present	absent