CHAPTER ONE
- INTRODUCTION
Microbiological quality of food indicates the amount of contaminants it has, a high level of contamination indicates low quality of food. Storage and its handling more likely to transmit diseases (Oranusi et al., 2013). Bacteria count in prepared food and water is a key factor in assessing the quality and safety of food. It also reveals the level f hygiene adopted by the food handlers in the course of preparation of such foods. Foods and water in particular have been described as vehicle for the transmission of microbial disease.
Ready-to-eat foods can be described as foods and beverages that can be bought directly from street vendors or hawkers and are consumed at the point of sale or at later time without further processing. It could be raw or cooked, hot or chilled and can be consume without further treatment(tsang,2002) there are so many examples of ready-to-eat food which includes meat pie, burger, fried chicken/meat, milk and milk products, porridge beans, rice, moi-moi(Beans pudding),assorted soups, okpa, egg rolls, bakery products, fruits e.t.c. while it is expected that the nutritional needs of the consumers should be met via the consumption of the street food , it is also necessary to ensure its safety from contaminants and microorganisms.
Safe food is a basic human right despite the Fact that many food are frequently contaminated with naturally occurring pathogenic microorganism which cannot be detected organoleptically (seen, smelled or tasted)but can cause diseases including death especially through the way they are conserved during exposition for sales provided conditions for those microorganism to grow and reach considerable levels of contamination (W.H.O., 2000).
There are many reasons why people eat away from home these includes among others absence from home while travelling, studying, while at work or need for a change in terms of food type or location and as such many people resort to buying street vended/ready-to-eat foods also because of processing time factors which may be poorly processed. This situation however has resulted to the transfer of food sanitary measures and proper food handling from individuals/families to the food vendors who rarely enforce such practices.