Enumeration, Identification And Occurrence Of Staphylococci In Cooked Foods And Hand Rinsed-Water From Eleven Local Government Areas Of Ibadan

Abstract

This project aimed at isolating, identifying and determining the level of occurrence of staphylococci in cooked foods,. “Amala”, “fufu”, “rice”, “beans”, “ewedu”, stew and hand-rinse water were collected from restaurants in the eleven Local Government Areas (LGA) of Ibadan. Staphylococci were isolated, enumerated and characterized using standard pour plating, culturing and biochemical test methods. Nine different species of Staphylococcus were identified as S. aureus, S. hyicus, S. epidermidis, S. intermidius, S. saprophyticus, S. arrieta, S. carnosi, S. haemolyticus and S. schleifer. In all the samples, Staphylococcusaureus occurred in 32 times, while S. Schleifer,S. hyicus, S. epidermidis, S. intermidius, S. saprophyticus, S. arrieta, S. carnosi and S. haemolyticus occurred in 1, 11, 14, 9, 4, 4, 2 and 8 times respectively. Among the food samples, staphylococcal load was highest (9.8 x 10² cfu/ml) in “fufu” from Akinyele LGA. In contrast, “ewedu” from Akinyele LGA showed the lowest population (1.2 x 10² cfu/ml) of staphylococci.

KEYWORDS: Ibadan Local Government Areas, Staphylococci, Population, Occurrence and Identification.