Microbial Quality Of Ready-To-Eat Meat Products In Umuahia Metropolies

ABSTRACT

Adopting the steps of the "first principle" in micro analysis, microbiological evaluations were carried out on the ready to eat meat samples. Micro organisms seen were identified and noted in recorded documents. Both bacteria and fungi were implicated in all the samples tested and include genera Clostridium and Actinomyces; the fungi present were Botrytis, Monilia and Scopulariopsis. Surprisingly, however, studies revealed that even Crunchies, — highly rated Departmental fast food outlet, produced ready to eat meat products that were carrying high loads of these pathogenic micro organisms especially the suya obtained from this departmental outlet. The microbial count of X1 (roasted chicken from Cruncheis) increased from 2.60 x i07to 2.12 x108after 5 days.