Abstract

The ready-to-eat (RTE) foods sold by the street vendors cause numerous public health hazards. A pilot study was carried out in three areas of Dhaka city, namely Dhanmondi (posh residential area), Lalbag (Low income group residential area) and Motijheel (Commercial area) to assess the microbial load of seven randomly chosen commonly consumed street-vended foods (SVFs) – Bhelpuri, Cake, Cholaboot, Ghugni, Samucha, Singara and Sugarcane juice. The mean aerobic plate count (APC), total coliform (TC) and total Escherichia coli (EC) count ranged from 2.74-3.78, 1.77-2.58 and 1.57-2.64 log10 CFU/g respectively for all the foods tested. According to the guidelines for RTE foods, the APC for Bhelpuri, Cholaboot, Cake and Ghugni is in the satisfactory level whereas for Samucha and Singara it is in the acceptable level. However, the APC, TC and EC count for sugarcane juice are 3.55-4.16, 2.76-3.54 and 2.46-3.39 log10 CFU/ml respectively and all these values fall in the unsatisfactory level. Taking 10 bacterial isolates randomly from each food item of all three areas, a total of 210 colonies were isolated to check the antimicrobial resistant pattern. 79.52% of isolates did not show any antibiotic resistance while the remaining 20.47% of isolates showed resistance to single/multiple antibiotics. Electrophoresis of DNA extract from antibiotic-resistant-isolates showed the presence of plasmid DNA of various sizes. One of the isolate from Bhelpuri of Dhanmondi showed resistance to ampicllin (Amp), neomycin (Neo) and penicillin (Pen) and was identified biochemically as Hafnia alvei. Another isolate from Sugarcane juice of Motijheel showed resistance to Amp, gentamycin (Gen), kanamycin (Kan), Neo and Pen and was identified biochemically as Klebsiella pneumoniae.

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