Microbial quality assessment of roasted and fried meat sold in Gumel town

Abstract

Roasted and fried meats are the two commonest and preferred meat varieties consumed in northern Nigeria. The consumption of these meat varieties is, nevertheless, without ascertaining its fitness in terms of contamination by pathogens. In line with this occurrence and preference, it is a good approach to assess the quality of roasted and fried meat in one of the prehistoric towns of northern Nigeria, which is Gumel. A total of 10 samples of both fried and roasted meat were randomly collected, prepared and microbiological analyses for mesophilic bacteria, fungi and coliform group conducted in the laboratory. The mean bacterial load was observed between 3.0 x 104 and 6.5 x 104 CFU/g for roasted beef meat and 4.7 x 104 and 5.3 x 104 CFU/g for fried beef meat. It was 4.5 x 104 and 6.0 x 104 CFU/g in roasted chicken meat and 4.0 x 104 and 4.7 x 104 CFU/g in fried chicken meat. For the fungal load, it was observed to be between the range of 1.0 x 104 and 3.0 x 103 CFU/g for roasted beef meat and 1.0 x 104 and 7.0 x 103 CFU/g for fried beef meat. For the chicken meat, it ranges from 1.0 x 104 to 4.0 x 103 CFU/g for the roasted type and 1.0 x 104 and 7.0 x 103 CFU/g for the fried meat. Investigation of the coliform group showed no growth in both samples. On biochemical tests, bacterial species confirmed to be present were Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus spp, and Streptococcus spp. while Penicillium spp, Mucor hiemalis, Aspergillus species and Rhizopus spp. are the fungal species observed in the meats. This research was, therefore, conducted to assess the quality of roasted and fried meat sold in Gumel town to relate it to some common diseases affecting the community.