Microbial Quality and safety of street vended fruit juices: A case study of Amravati city

Abstract

There are reports of food borne illness associated with the consumption of fruit juices at several places in India and elsewhere. Hence a rapid review of the street vended fruit juices was undertaken to assess the safety for human consumption and as possible sources of bacterial pathogens. A total of 52 samples were analyzed and dominant bacterial pathogen recorded was E.coli (40%), followed by Ps. aeruginosa (25%), Salmonella spp. (16%), Proteus spp. (9%), S. aureus (6%), Klebsiella spp. (3%) and Enterobacter spp. (1%). The highest bacterial contamination was observed in sweet lemon (35%), pineapple (29%), and pomegranate, apple, orange (12% each). The contamination is mainly due to poor quality of water used for dilution as well as prevailing unhygienic conditions related to washing of utensils, contaminated water and ice, poor personal and domestic hygiene, peeling of fruits before hand, shop in crowed place, dust particles in the evening and maintains of premises. The location by the side of a busy road with heavy vehicular traffic (airborne particles) or by the side of the waste disposal system and over crowding seems to add to the contamination. However Health education of the vendors and implementation of standard hygienic practices may reduce contamination of fruit juices. Regular monitoring of the quality of fruit juices for human consumption must be introduced to avoid any future bacterial pathogen outbreak.