Quality Assessment of Vended ‘Pito’ and Safety Practices of Vendors in Different Markets in Ibadan

Abstract

This study was mainly carried out to assess the quality of street vended ‘Pito’ in some selected markets in Ibadan, Oyo State. The safety of street vending practices was also assessed. The chemical (proximate and physicochemical composition), microbiological and observational check list of eight street vended ‘Pito’ samples collected from four markets (Agbeni, Ogunpa, Beere and Bodija) in Ibadan, Oyo state were investigated. The result showed that street vended ‘Pito’ is significantly (p<0.05) high in moisture, low in protein, ash, fat and carbohydrate. Total coliform, Salmonella spp and Shigella spp were within specification limits of microbiological quality while total viable count (TVC) and total fungi were above the limits. Significant (p<0.05) differences exist among the samples in their chemical composition, microbiological and colour parameters.

Keywords: Microbial quality, street vended, ‘pito’ , sorghum based beverage, hygiene practice.