Good day steemians, today i will be doing an introduction on the study of the bacteriological quality of ready to eat rice sold on streets and markets in the Nigerian community.

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INTRODUCTION

Food is usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, protein and water that can be eaten or drunk by animal or human for nutrition, pleasure and to quench hunger (Davidson, 2006), foods are complex organic substances which living organisms require for producing energy for metabolic activities/processes and for building up of body tissues when they are broken down within the body of a living organisms that may be used for repair of worn out tissues and cells, replacement of dead old cells fight against foreign invaders (antigen) and proper functioning of the body system (Nester et al., 2004).

From the Microbiology perspective, food can be view as a fertile eco-system in which these organisms vie for their nutrients (Nester et al., 2004). The consumption of food is essential for human survival but along with gaining good nutrition and satisfaction from eating food, occasionally, human being consume undesirable biological agents and toxins (Ali et al., 2014)

People are more attracted to non-home-made foods like, restaurant foods and street foods. Non home-made foods are cooked and presented in such a way that fascinates the people. It is not always about the fascination it is about the time to prepare food to eat, e.g. lack of time people of all age from student to job holder have to rely on non-home-made foods. Usually non-home-made foods are not hygienic, to keep the attention of customer and earn more money with less effort vendors compromise with food quality. People suffer a lot due to consumption of unhygienic foods.

Food is the single most important commodity in urban consumers list of goods and services utilized, accounting for about fifty-five percent of total household expenditure (Dawson and Cent, 1991).

Majority of foods are often consumed away from home, these foods are sold by food vendors in Nigeria date back to the colonial area, but increasingly popular these days due to urbanization and for economic reason. (Theokornge and Nogoddy, 1985).

In the country, there is variety of fast food sold by food vendors and hawkers, worthily of this include food such as - rice, beans, moi moi, beans cake, fried rice etc. The daily purchased of these fast foods by people may be as a result of income constrains where some people can only spend small amount of money on fast foods some may avoid the vigorous effort of preparing the food at home, especially to the bachelors, spinsters and students in such cases, these selected fast foods provide a convenient source of nourishment to students, spinsters and bachelors (Dawson and Cent, 1991). These fast foods are normally sold in shops, business centers (use as refreshment to their customers) and are also hawked to some sites and places like Banks, Offices, packs and schools (an example is Oduduwa University Ipetumodu, Osun state). The form in which these fast foods are made depends on the technological method, however, the local techniques employed in the production affect the shelf life of the finished product. The preparation procedure as well as the hawking makes the food susceptible to contamination by micro-organisms and also equipment used during production and packaging contaminates the food as well, especially by few pathogenic groups (Theokornge and Nogoddy 1985).

Eating at local restaurants which could be canteen or cafeteria is a most practised by students, staffs and the general public due to availability at time of want. These local restaurants are located at different areas, some are very close to the road sides and some are located by dumping sites and bushes.

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Ready-to-eat rice (RTE) is a potential reservoir of pathogens that transmit diseases. Several studies have attributed diarrhea and associated death to the consumption of contaminated RTE rice. An epidemiological link between RTE rice and diarrhea has been reported (Mensah et al., 2000). Food borne bacterial pathogens commonly detected in RTE rice are Bacillus cereus, Clostridium perfringens, Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella spp. (Muleta and Ashnafi, 2001; Mankee et al., 2005; Ghosh et al., 2007; Christison et al., 2008; Manguiat and Fang, 2013;Vecdet Öz et al., 2014). Certain foods sold by street vendors such as rice have been implicated in food poisoning outbreaks (Mensah et al., 2012).
Lacking personal hygiene amongst food handlers is one of the most commonly reported practices contributed to food borne illness and poor hand and surface hygiene is also a significant contributory factor (WHO, 2000). Food premises have been shown to be associated with poor hygiene standards (Cogan et al., 2002). In most countries, food borne disease remain a public health predicament inspite of the improvement in hygienic standards, improved food processing practices, education of food handlers and consumer awareness (Collins et al., 2001).

The hands of food handlers can be pivotal as vector in the spread food borne disease due to poor personal hygiene or cross contamination. Hand washing a simple and effective way to cut down on cross contamination, is too often forgotten. Food-borne disease is a public health problem in developed and developing countries.

Several types of microorganisms have been known to affect the quality of rice, thereby constituting health hazards when rice contaminated with these organisms are consumed.

Conclusion

The level of contamination of RTE rice is high in this environment and is a cause of concern because of high consumption of rice especially among children. Bacteriological examination of rice especially ready-to-eat rice is very important since this helps to evaluate the safety of foods and provide measures to prevent food-borne disease outbreaks.

According to Itoandon et al. (2011), the presence of mesophilic microorganisms in food is an indication that pathogenic microbes are likely to be present in such foods. A number of food items such as rice sold locally in Nigeria have been shown to be highly contaminated with Bacillus species (Oluwafemi and Simisaye, 2005; Yah et al., 2009; Okonko et al., 2009; Itoandon et al., 2011), Staphylococcus (Balaban and Rasooly, 2000; Oranusi et al., 2006a, 2006b) and other bacteria species (Ajao and Atere, 2009; Oranusi and Braide, 2012; Madueke et al., 2014).

Information on factors that could compromise the quality of such RTE rice is important to inform good food preparation practices among the majority of Nigeria in order to avert food associated illness in the country. In this context, there is high consumption of RTE cooked rice in the country and despite evidence that most of them are prepared under unhygienic condition, their microbial quality is not known.