Microbial Quality Of Pizza Sold In Umuahia Metropolis:- George, Deborah O

ABSTARCT v viii y A The aim of this study was to determine the microbial quality of pizza sold in Umuahia Metropolis. Samples of chicken and meat pizza were collected from different sellers in Umuahia. A loopful from the aerobic nutrient broth was then subcultured on several selective media to isolate different pathogens. The weight of each sample was 100g and aseptically transferred, without delay, in an insulated ice box to the laboratory and then subjected to microbiological examinations. Bacterial load ranged from 3.6 x 105 Cfu/g to 7.33 x 105 Cfu/g. This level of bacteria population in pizza shows that the bacteria load was higher than the acceptable bacteria of 1.0 x 105 Cfu/g. The mean fungal load varied from 2.67 x 102 to 8.3 x 102 Cfu/g. There were differences in the levels of fungi contamination ofthe food. Diverse species of bacteria were present in the pizza but with varying prevalence in occurrence. Staphylococcus was the predominant bacterial species with 100% occurrence while Salmonella was the least predominant with 14.29% occurrence. The occurrence of were 71.43%, 28.57%, 42.86% and 28.57% respectively. Four fungi species were isolated and identified ifrom the pizza samples they include Aspergillus (28.87%), yeasts 85.71%, Penicillium (14.29%) and Rhizopus 14.29%. the yeasts were the nod predominant with 85.7% occurrence while Penicillium and Rhizopus had 14.29% each as the least occurred fungi isolated. . This shows that pizza sold to the public within Umuahia metropolis habours species of bacterial and fungi some ofwhich have history of pathogenicity.