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Page No. : 83-86

ABSTRACT

Contaminated drinking water is used for the preparation of street foods, lead to foodborne infections. Thus, determination of microbiological quality of water available with the street vendors is essential for public health. The present study was aimed to determine the microbiological quality of drinking water available with the street food vendors before and after chlorination treatment. A total of 102 water samples (51 samples each before and after intervention) were collected from 17 different (5 meat & 6 each of egg and milk) vendors located in Bareilly and processed for most probable number (MPN) of coliform and isolation of Escherichia coli. The water samples collected before intervention were analyzed for MPN using 5 tubes technique of FSSAI revealed that 50 samples (98.1 %) had mean MPN count (2.66 to 1600/100 mL) above acceptable limits except one, which had acceptable mean MPN count (<2/100 mL). Twenty-seven (52.9 %) water samples showed the presence of E. coli. Post-intervention water samples were collected by surprise visit and a 40 (78.4%) samples showed MPN count within acceptable limits, except for 11 samples (21.6%) that showed unacceptable MPN count (2.6 to 44.33/100 mL). On an interview with the vendors it was observed that the six vendors didn’t follow the proper chlorination protocol, hence the samples (n=11) had unacceptable mean MPN. Though the mean MPN counts of 11 samples were unacceptable, the study indicated that most of the vendors followed proper chlorination treatment except few. Thus, a simple chlorination treatment can improve the microbiological quality of water and thereby the hygienic standards of the street foods.

Keywords: Microbiological quality, MPN, street vendors, water