Bacteriological Quality Evaluation of Ready-to-Eat Pineapple Fruit Slices Sold in Markets around Port Harcourt and it’s Environ in Rivers State, Nigeria

Thirty-six samples of “ready to eat” pineapple samples collected in the morning and evening from six different markets in Port Harcourt were analyzed to determine their bacteriological quality. All the pineapple slices examined were contaminated with some bacterial species. The average microbial load of the sample on Nutrient agar, MacConkey agar and Mannitol salt agar for the morning and evening samples were 6.6672×10^6cfu/g, 2.5833×10^4cfu/g and 8.0000×10^3cfu/g respectively while those of the evening samples were 1.2494×10^7cfu/g, 3.9688×10^4cfu/g and 8.8888×10^3cfu/g respectively. The total heterotrophic bacterial count on the different samples bought at different times (morning and evening) were significantly different at probability P 0.05 while E. coli and Staphylococcal counts on the different media at the different times (morning and evening) were not significant at P 0.05. The predominant genera of bacteria observed were Escherichia, Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, Shigella, Enterobacter, Providencia, Proteus, Serratia, Salmonella and Citrobacter with Escherichia having the highest frequency of occurrence (23.61%). These findings suggest that most “ready to eat” pineapples hawked in the local markets may be implicated in Public Health issues as bacterial agents responsible for food poisoning were isolated from them. The need for improvement and maintenance of good hygiene practices by food handlers and vendors in these markets and trading outlets is recommended.