Abstract

Nwachukwu, Ejikeme* and Nwaigwe, Ugochukwu Victor

Occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus in meat pie and eggroll sold in Umuahia metropolis was investigated. The samples were analyzed according to standard bacteriological methods. Total viable count of meat pie ranged from 1.2 × 103 to 3.4 × 104 cfu/g. Total coliform count ranged from 1.8 × 10 3 to 4.2 × 103 cfu/g and Staphylococcus count ranged from 1.0 × 103 to 4.1 × 103 cfu/g. Analysis of variance showed that total viable count and Staphlococcus count were significant at 0.05 level. The total viable count for eggroll ranged from 3.4 × 103 to 3.8 × 104 cfu/g. Total coliform count ranged from 1.7 × 103 to 2.3 × 103 cfu/g. Staphylococcus count ranged from 1.5 × 103 to 4.8 × 103 cfu/g. The antibiotic susceptibility of S. aureus indicated various patterns. Some were resistant while some were sensitive to the antibiotics tested. The organism was highly sensitive to gentamycin. In order to prevent outbreak of food poisoning, public health establishments should enforce proper handling of foods such as meat pie and eggroll. Proper hygiene should be practiced by handlers of ready to eat foods.