Bacteriological assessment of hawked ready-to-eat fried prawns retailed in selected locations of Lagos Mainland, Nigeria

Abstract

Ready-to-eat (RTE) prawn product which characterizes many streets of Lagos Mainland undoubtedly exposes a large number of customers to bacteriological hazards of health risks but no ample report yet on the safety of this product in Lagos Mainland. This study examined the bacterial contaminants of health importance in the hawked RTE prawns samples. Ten nylon-wrapped RTE prawns each were randomly selected from Oshodi (OS), Ebute-metta (EM) and Ketu (KT) vending areas of Lagos Mainland and bacteriologically enumerated for Total Aerobic Bacterial Count (TABC), Total Staphylococcus count (TSC) and Total Coliform Count (TCC), all expressed in log CFU/g. Presence of Salmonella and Shigella was also determined and biochemically confirmed. The bacterial counts differed insignificantly (p<0.05) among the vending sites; lowest and highest mean TABC values (4.70±0.15, EM; 6.72 ± 0.18, KT), TSC (4.46±0.10, KT; 5.86± 0.13, OS), TCC (4.36±0.13 (OS); 5.55±0.06, (OS) and TEBC (0, (EM); 5.48±0.11, OS). Biochemically identified Staphylococcus aureus dominated the prawn products. Escherichia coli were detected with traces of Salmonella spp. The highest bacterial counts recorded in the entire RTE fried prawn products of this study are within the maximum limits recommended, implying their safe consumption. However, detection of Escherichia coli and Salmonella sp. is an object of public health concern which demands an improvement in the hygiene practices of the product handlers.