Microbial Assessment of Aprons Worn By Some Street Food Vendors In Awka South, Anambra State, Nigeria

Many food vendors touch money and other contaminated items with their bare hands before serving meals to customers without cleaning them. This creates a pathway for microorganisms to spread from their hands to the aprons and then the food. A total of six swabs were aseptically collected randomly from different parts in the respective aprons of food vendors from six randomly selected street food vendor points within the premises of the study area. The isolates' cultural and morphological characteristics were identified. Four bacterial and six fungal isolates were found in the aprons. The bacterial isolates include Staphylococcus aureus (32.7%), Bacillus spp.(21.8%), Klebsiella spp.(11.1%) and Escherichia coli (34.01%) while the fungal isolates include Mucor spp. (12.1%), Candida spp. (17.1%), Microsporum canis (17.1%), Penicillium spp. (9.7%) and Aspergillus spp. (24.3%) for fungi were isolated. Escherichia coli and  Aspergillus species were the most prevalent bacterial and fungal isolates respectively. It was observed that aprons of food-vendors who stay in close proximity to garbage dumps contained higher levels of pathogenic organisms. The results of this study showed that most food vendors fail to maintain proper food hygiene, which raises concerns for the public's health. Education of food vendors on personal, environmental, and food hygiene is crucial since it will help to reduce apron contamination and improve the safety of the food provided at vending locations.