Microbiological Food Safety Standards Practiced by some Hotel Industries in Kumasi

Numerous microbiological hazards and risks are associated with the food industry and research has indicated that eating food prepared in restaurant is the main source of most foodborne illnesses globally. In Ghana, there is an increase of foodborne diseases which has led to street food studies; however, there is less microbiological information on hotel foods. This study therefore aims in determining the microbiological food safety standards practiced by some hotel industries in the Kumasi Metropolis. A total of ten hotels with regular patronage viz., 3 ‘three star’, 3 ‘two-star’, 2 ‘one-star’ and 2 ‘budget hotels’ were selected from the study area using simple random sampling technique. A total of forty structured questionnaires were distributed to the cooks, chefs and their assistants. The questionnaires covered the demographic information of respondents, knowledge of food hygiene and safety practices and kitchen sanitation. For the second part of the study, a total of forty food samples were aseptically collected from five of the hotels (three star to budget) and analyzed. Standard methods were used for the dilution, spreading, incubation, enumeration and identification. Serial dilution of each food was prepared in buffered peptone water and inoculated onto malt extract agar (MEA) for fungal (mold and yeast) colony count. For bacteria count inoculation was done onto Plate Count Agar (PCA) for total mesophilic count, MacConkey Agar (MCA) for total coliform count and Violet Red Bile Glucose Agar (VRBGA) for total enterobacteriaceae count. Results of this study indicated that, majority of the respondents 74.4% knew the causes of food poisoning and that 89.7 % were aware that microorganisms could be found in refrigerated foods. In the area of sanitation, 94.9 % respondents used fly proof doors in their kitchens and 66.7 % knew that cooking environment should be cleaned in the morning, afternoon and evening. The females (56.4%) dominated in the hotel food preparation in this study. Count of yeast and moulds on foods fromH otel-01 ranged from 5.0 x 101 cfu/g to 1.0.x 104 cfu/g, 1.7 x 102 cfu/g to 2.3 x 104 cfu/g for Hotel-02, 1.0 x 102 cfu/g to 2.3 x 105 cfu/g for Hotel-03, 1.7 x 102 cfu/g to 1.1 x 104 cfu/g for Hotel-04 and 1.3 x 102 cfu/g to 1.3 x 106 cfu/g for Hotel-05. Fungi identified include Aspergillus tamaric, Cladosporium herbarium and Penicillium commune. On enumerated bacteria for Hotel-01, total mesophillic count (TMC) ranged from 2.0 log10 cfu/g to 6.7 log10 cfu/g, total coliform count (TCC) ranged from 2.0 log10 cfu/g to 7.0 log10 cfu/g, and total enterobacteriaceae count (TEC) was from 2.0 log10 cfu/g. to 6.4 log10 cfu/g. In Hotel-02, TMC ranged from 4.6 log10 cfu/g to 7.0 log10 cfu/g, TCC ranged between 4.6 log10 cfu/g to 6.8 log10 cfu/g, and TEC was from 4.0 log10 cfu/g to 5.7 log10 cfu/g. In Hotel-03, TMC ranged from 3.5 log10 cfu/g to 4.6 log10 cfu/g, TCC was from 2.4 log10 cfu/g to 4.5 log10 cfu/g, and TEC was between 3.0 log10 cfu/g and 4.2 log10 cfu/g. TMC from Hotel-04 was from 3.0 log10 cfu/g to 6.5, log10 cfu/g, TCC was from 6.1 log10 cfu/g to 6.4 log10 cfu /g, and TEC ranged from 3.1log10 cfu/g to 6.3 log10 cfu/g. From Hotel-05 TMC ranged from 3.2 log10 cfu/g to 6.9 log10 cfu/g , TCC was from 3.1 log10 cfu/g to 7.2 log10 cfu/g, and TEC was from 2.1 log10 cfu/g to 6.8 log10 cfu/g. Among the bacteria identified were Coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (27.3 %) in Hotel-01, Gram negative rods (35.3 %) in Hotel-02, Gram-positive rods (100 %) in Hotel-03, Acinetobacter spp. (22.2 %) from Hotel-04 and Klebsiella pneumoniae (27.3%). For the kitchen and restaurant environments, coagulase-negative Staphylococcus dominated the bacteria identified. Some of the observed safety practices were not up to the required standards and could possibly be the cause of the contamination in the foods. It can be concluded that most foods served in some of the test hotels were above the acceptable limits. Similar study should be conducted in other hotels in the Kumasi Metropolis. Again, bacteriological studies should be done on more common foods to determine their contamination levels.

Source: KNUST