Evaluation of bacterial etiology and hygiene status of food-handlers in Jessore city, Bangladesh
Paper Details
Evaluation of bacterial etiology and hygiene status of food-handlers in Jessore city, Bangladesh
Abstract
Food handler’s hands are common source of food contamination, food spoilage, food poisoning and causation of diseases in consumers. Infected food handlers can transmit both enteric and non-enteric infections via the food that they handled and therefore lead to life threatening effects. Standard hygienic condition should be necessary to ensure food quality and safety. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of bacteria and to evaluate the hygienic status among different types of food handlers in Jessore city, Bangladesh. A total of 21 hand swabs were collected by standard hand swab technique from different restaurant’s food handlers and street vendors. Then cultured in bacteriological agar and 77 isolates were identified by standard morphological and biochemical characteristics. Twelve genera of bacteria were found, they were; Klebsiella pneumoniae (21%), Staphylococcus aureus (16%), Bacillus spp. (14%), Staphylococcus epidermidis (10%), Enterobacter aerogenes (9%), Micrococcus luteus (9%), Escherichia coli (7%), Streptococcus pyogenes (3%), Shigella flexinary (2%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (2%), Serratia marcescens (2%) and Streptococcus mutans (5%). Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae have the highest prevalence in different types of food handlers including indoor, outdoor, dry-food, wet-food handlers and also in food-makers and food-servers. Although Staphylococcus spp. and Streptococcus spp. are considered as normal commensal on human, but reflect improper hygiene practice such as pocking nose with fingers. Adequate food safety training must be received by the food handlers which may subsequently reduce the food-borne incidences.
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Syedzadi Mahbuba Monzur Mouna, Md. Rafiuzzaman, Selina Akter, Nigarin Sultana, 2015. Evaluation of bacterial etiology and hygiene status of food-handlers in Jessore city, Bangladesh. Int. J. Biosci., 6(5), 1-7.
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