Microbial Quality Of Hawked Sliced Tapioca Sold In Umuahia Metropolis

ABSTRACT

The microbiological quality of tapioca was investigated in this work. Five different samples were collected from live different hawkers in Umuahia metropolis comprising of Ohuhu, Umuopara, lbeku, tJbakala and Olokoro. The samples were inoculated using pour plate technique by serially diluting the samples. The media used include Nutrient Agar, Mannitol salt agar, Deoxycholate citrate agar, Sabouraud dextrose agar and MacConkey agar. The following microorganisms were isolated from the tapioca samples Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus species, Etherichia coli and Saccham,nycc.s' ccrevisiae. Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent with 100% prevalence. It was discovered that the personnel handling the food, the surrounding environment like stream where they washed the tapioca and the hawking pans were the source of micro organisms to the tapioca. It was concluded and recommended that personal and environmental hygiene were the necessary Factors to improve the safety of commercially prepared foods like tapioca.