EVALUATION OF MICROBIAL PROFILES OF SELECTED READY AND NON- READY TO CONSUME FISH VENDED IN SOME OPEN MARKET IN AWKA, ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Food Vendors play an important role in the cities and towns of many developing countries in meeting the food demands

of the urban dwellers. It feeds millions of people daily with a wide variety of fish and fishery products that are relatively

cheap and easily accessible. However concerns have been raised about the safety and quality of fish vended in open

markets, Hence this study was carried out to determine the microbial profile and the hygienic and sanitary practices of

fish vended in some open markets in Awka, A total of four fish samples in different forms comprising of ready and non -

ready to eat (hot smoked, cold smoked, frozen and barbequed) were collected from some open markets in Awka such as

Eke Awka, Second Market and Abakiliki Street. A number of microorganisms and fungi spp were isolated and identified

using standard methods. However, Frozen and Barbequed fish were observed to have the highest number of microbes

with their mean Total Bacteria Count (TBC) 6.35 ×

and “Too Numerous To Count” (TNTC) respectively and the

lowest was the cold smoked fish with a mean TBC of 2.30×

.The overall hygienic status of the vending environment

and the sanitary condition and handling practices of the vendors were not to the standard. The results emphasized the

microbial contamination of the fishes. This study recommends training of vendors on hygiene and sanitary standard in

order to reduce microbial contamination of fishes.