Pakistan Journal of Nutrition

Year: 2015 | Volume: 14 | Issue: 4 | Page No.: 225-228
DOI: 10.3923/pjn.2015.225.228

Determination and Identification of Enterobacteriaceae in Street Vended Foods in Karachi, Pakistan

Ikramullah Khan, Muhammad Ajmal Shah, Faiqa Saulat Mehmood, Asma Saeed and Mohammad Sualeh

Abstract: Food borne diseases are an increasingly recognized problem involving a wide spectrum of illnesses caused by bacterial contamination of food. Enterobacteriaceae poses potential human health problems and is mainly transmitted through consumption of contaminated foods. Karachi is one of the biggest and thickly populated city of Pakistan where majority of the people consume cheap foods prepared in unlicensed food selling points. The objective of the present study was to determine the total Enterobacteriaceae load in various fast foods sold directly to consumers in the streets of Karachi. A total of 27 different food items were collected from street vended foods and processed for the recovery of Enterobacteriaceae load through culturing method and biochemical characterization. Out of the 27 samples, 13 food samples did not show the growth of Enterobacteriaceae, while the remaining 14 samples were heavily contaminated with gram negative bacteria. From the present study, it can be concluded that majority of the fast foods sold in the street restaurants of Karachi Pakistan is highly contaminated and not fit for human consumption.

Keywords: Microbial contamination, fast foods and unhygienic conditions

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