Abstract:
Street foods are ready to eat food prepared and sold by the vendors and the hawkers in the street and public places. Pathogenic bacteria are the most commonly known causes of food contamination and food borne illness. This study therefore aimed to detect the prevalence of food borne bacteriological pathogen of ready-to-eat foods sold on various parts of Dharan Sub metropolitan city. Street food sector in Nepal operates in an unstable and precarious state as it lacks legal recognition. There have been noticeable increases of food vendors in Dharan municipality, who sell both raw and cooked food items. They operate haphazardly without any monitoring of what they prepare and how they do it. Microbial contamination of ready-to-eat foods and beverages sold by street vendors and hawkers has become a global health problem. A study to assess the microbiological status of such street foods was carried out. 60 different samples of each four various street food were collected, and microbiological analysis was carried out to enumerate total plate count, total coliform count and Salmonella. The average TPC were found to be 76x107, 48x107, 31x107and ,21x107, cfu/g in aalunimki, panipuri, chatpate and dahi bada samples respectively. Similarly, the average coliform counts were 36x107, 29x107, 21x107, and 19 x107, cfu/g in aalunimki, panipuri, chatpate and dahibada samples respectively. Salmonella was detected in 22 food samples. All the isolated bacteria pathogens were subjected to antibiotic susceptibility test to the 7 different antibiotics namely Amoxycillin, Amikacin, Cefoxitine, Chloramphenicol, Nalidixic acid, Tetracycline and Ciprofloxacin. All the isolates showed resistance to at least two or three antimicrobial and resistance to a wide range of antibiotics was observed. Strict hygienic practice, such as education of food handlers in improving the hygienic practice, regular monitoring and supervision by local authorities, sanitation and awareness health education etc. are needed in order to avoid any food-borne pathogenic outbreaks in future.
