ISOLATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIA FROM FOOD VENDORS AND SELECTED VEGETABLES AVAILABLE AT OGBETE MARKET, ENUGU

Safety of food is a basic requirement of food quality. A total of 25 streetfood samples (Jollof rice, egwusi soup, ugu, water leaf and green), were randomly purchased from five different vendors in Ogbete main market Enugu. The samples were transported in ice to the laboratory. The samples were bacteriologically analyzed using pour plate technique and sub-culture. Pour plate techniques was done by carrying out serial dilution of the sample after which the first tube and the last tube were picked and 1ml of each sample was pipette into a Nutrient agar, the plate was then incubated for 24 hours at 37oC after which the plate were examined for growth. Sub culture was done using bacteriological agar. All the screened food samples had varying levels of bacterial growth ranging from 1.0 X 105to 3.0 X 106 cfu/ml. ninety percent of the sampled foods had bacterial counts above the acceptable limits (104 cfu/ml) and 10% of the sampleshad bacterial counts less than (