MICROBIOLOGICAL TESTS FOR FOOD CONTAMINATION

OF STREET FOODS BEING SOLD IN ILIGAN CITY

PHILIPPINE SCINCE HIGH SCHOOL

CENTRAL MINDANAO CAMPUS

RESEARCH 1

Cabrera,Liam Gene A.

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 Go,Axel Franz C.

INTRODUCTION

Street foods are ready-to-eat foods and beverages prepared and/or sold by vendors or

hawkers especially in the streets and other similar places(FAO,1989).Street foods are one

of the go-to snacks, or even meals of some Filipinos especially students as vendors of

street food usually put up their stalls near schools. Not only that street foods are easily

accessible, they are also very cheap in which anybody can buy it. Despite the satisfaction

being provided by street foods to their consumer, it also poses some serious threat such

as food borne illnesses of microbial origin which is a major health problem commonly

associated with street foods. The processing methods used in preparing the food usually

involves inappropriate holding temperature and poor personal hygiene of food handlers,

the main cause of contamination in street-vended foods(Yollande I,2007). Proper

hygiene is not a thing when it comes to street vending. The lack of tap water leads to the

hands and utensils of the vendor uncleaned leads to cross-contamination with the food.

Improper waste disposal brings the presence of insects and rodents which might carry

food borne pathogens(Tambekar DH,2009). Excessive consumption of street foods leads

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to health problems associated with contamination of food are Escherichia coli,

Salmonella typhi, Cholera and Hepatitis A. According to the Department of Health,

13,000 cases were reported in the past 2 years due to food and water borne diseases.More

than 50% of the total reported cases where due to typhoid and diarrhea. The popularity of

street foods is increasing in the towns/cities most especially in Iligan City. Stalls have

been put up in almost every corner of the city which means more chances of acquiring

food borne diseases.This study was designed to check the microbiological quality of

food borne diseases through tests of select street foods being sold in Iligan City and how

to prevent in acquiring such diseases.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

To check and identify the food borne diseases present on the different street food

in Iligan City and to measure the amount of pathogen found on the samples and to give

the people knowledge on the risks they might get when eating too much street foods.

MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

Study design and setting

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 A cross sectional study is followed to determine the presence of food borne

pathogens on street food in Iligan City.

Sample collection and processing

60 samples are collected (10 for each food item) from different street food stalls

around the city. The samples are to be brought to the laboratory for processing.

Microbial Count

A microbiological analysis is conducted on the samples

Data analysis

Results from the microbiological analysis are gathered and then compared the

results of the different samples

REFERENCES

Eromo, T., Tassew, H., Daka, D., & Kibru, G. (2016). Bacteriological Quality of Street

Foods and Antimicrobial Resistance of Isolates in Hawassa, Ethiopia. Ethiopian

Journal of Health Sciences, 26(6), 533. doi: 10.4314/ejhs.v26i6.5

Tambekar DH, Jaiswal VJ, Dhanorkar DV, Gulhane PB, Dudhane MN. Identification of

microbiological hazards and safety of ready-to-eat food vended in streets of

Amravati City, India. Journal of Applied Biosciences. 2008;7:195–201

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Nicolas B, Razack BA, Yollande I, Aly S, Tidiane Oca, Philippe NA, et al.

Street-Vended Foods Improvement: Contamination Mechanisms and Application of

Food Safety Objective Strategy. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition. 2007;6(1)