MICROBIAL QUALITY OF FRESH FRUITS SOLD IN IKOT EKPENE

MICROBIAL QUALITY OF FRESH FRUITS SOLD IN IKOT EKPENE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Fresh fruits are an extraordinary dietary source of nutrients, micronutrients, vitamins and fibre for humans and are thus vital for health and well being. Well balance diets, rich in fruit are especially valuable for their ability to prevent vitamin C and vitamin A deficiencies and are also reported to reduce the risk of several diseases (kalia and Gupta, 2006).

Fresh fruit are widely exposed to microbial contamination through contact with soil, dust and water and by handing at harvest or during postharvest processing. Fruit therefore harbor a diverse range of micro-organism, including plant and human pathogens (Nguyen- the and carlin 1994) Differences in microbial profiles of various fruit result largely from unrelated factors such as resident microflora in the soil, application of non-resident microflora via animal menures, sewage or irrigation water transportation and handling by individual retailer (Ray and Bhinia 2007); (of et al 2009).

In developing countries such as Nigeria continued use of untreated waste water and manure as fertilizers for the production of fruit as a major contributing factor to contaminations (Olayemi, 1997)

(Amoah et al.,  2009) thus despite their nutritional and health benefits outbreaks of human inflections associated with the consumption of fresh or minimally processed fruits have increased in recent years (Hedberg, 1994; Altekruse and swerdlow 1996; Beuchat; 1996 and Beuchat, 2002).

Entric pastogens such as Escherichia Coli and salmonella are among the greatest concerms during food related out breaks (Buck et al., 2003) several cases of typhoid fever outbreak have been associated with eating contaminated fruits grown in sor fertilized with contaminated soil or sewage (Beuchat, 1998) these increase in fruit and vegetable borne infection may have resulted from increased