Bacteriological Profile Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern and Handling Practice of Street Vended Foods, in Harar City, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Street foods are prepared and sold by vendors, especially in the streets around trading centers and other public places, for immediate or later consumption without further pro­cessing or preparation. However, the extent of the bacterial profiles of street foods and the handling practices of food handlers are poorly understood. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the bacteriological profiles of street foods, han­dling practices, and antimicrobial resistance pat­terns of the bacterial isolates in Harar city between March and June 2021.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among 137 food samples from 137 street food vendors. A questionnaire and observational checklist were used to collect the data. The samples were analyzed for bacterial path­ogens and counted for bacteria load by the standard aerobic plate count method. Ten grams of solid and 10 ml of liquid samples were collected then each food samples were transferred and homogenized into 90 ml of sterile buffered pep­tone water. The homogenates solution was serially diluted, and a volume of 0.1 ml dilution was spread on plate count agar, Violet red bile agar, MacConkey agar, Xylose Lysine Deoxycholate agar, and Mannitol salt agar to identify and enumerate bacteria. An antibiotic susceptibility test of the isolates was done on Muller Hinton agar using the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method. Data were entered into Epi info 7.2 and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 20.

Results: All the food items tested were contaminated with one or more bacteria. The predominant isolates were E. coli (46.7%), and S. aureus (27.7%). Accordingly, the aerobic plate count, Enterobacteriaceae count, and Staphylo­coccal count for all the samples tested varied from 5.2 x 105 CFU/g to 4 x 107 CFU/g, 1.2 x 103 CFU/g to 8.4 × 106 CFU/g, and 1.6 x 103 CFU/g to 3.4 x 105CFU/g, respectively. Among all the antibiotics tested, ampicillin (71.2%), ceftriaxone (39.6%), and sulphamethoxazole-tri­methoprim (38.5%) showed higher resistance against all the isolates.  In this study, 69 (50.4%) of vendors were observed to handle fast food with bare hands and 11% of them allowed their customers to touch the fast food with their bare hands.

Conclusions:  All of the food samples tested were found contaminated with different pathogenic bacteria that could be associated with food-borne illnesses. Training street food handlers to raise their awareness about proper food han­dling practices and personal hygiene is necessary.

Keywords: Bacteriological assessment, street vended foods, antimicrobial resistance pattern, Harar, eastern Ethiopia.