Enumeration and Identification of Bacteria Commonly Associated with Overripe Plantain

There are increasing reports of food poisoning due to methods used for processing certain food items in most parts of Africa especially in Nigeria. Also, very little information is available on bacteria counts of over ripe fried plantain (Dodo-Ikire) locally produced among the indigenes of Ikire town and sold in some parts of Western States of Nigeria. This study enumerates and identified bacterial isolated from over ripe fried plantain. The samples were obtained from two vendors in Ikire and Ibadan. Among the samples obtained, the bacterial counts of Dodo Ikire purchased from Ikire town ranged between 1.5x105 and 7.1x106 cfu/g which had moderate bacterial counts compared with samples purchased from Ibadan with higher bacterial counts ranged between 6.2x107 and 9.0x108 cfu/g. The study also discovered that the predominant bacterial are Klebsiella pneumoniae, followed by Staphylococcus aureus as well as Bacillus subtilis and lastly Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The study concluded that the significant higher values of bacterial counts obtained in the samples employed indicated poor hygiene practices by the producers and the vendors. Also, this study suggested that improvement should be made on proper hygiene practices in both the production and the packaging process of the products as well as restriction of vendors from hawking Dodo Ikire in densely populated areas of both the city and the town in order to minimize bacterial contamination