Assessment Of Heavy Metals Levels And Microbial Quality Of Ready To Eat Pepper Sauce In Asokore-Mampong Municipality Of Ashanti Region,Ghana

In Ghana freshly processed ready-to-eat pepper sauce is an accompaniment regularly served with many main meals like banku, fufu, kenkey and kokonte in various homes, restaurants, streets vending and fast food joints. The nature of freshly preparing the sauce without any heating process predisposes it to environmental contamination with concern that the biological safety of such food is always in doubt. In a bid to ascertain the safety of ready-to-eat pepper sauce served during meals, the levels of heavy metals and microbial quality of ready-to-eat pepper sauce, prepared in the AsokoreMampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region in Ghana was investigated. Samples of ready-to-eat pepper sauces were collected randomly from 4 households (HH), 4 restaurants (R) and 4 street vendors (SV) monthly over a three months period. Questionnaire lead interview was conducted to solicit socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents in sampled households, restaurants and street vendors. Microbial assessment was carried out to identify and determine the abundance of bacteria and fungi present in the sauces. The levels of heavy metals, Arsenic (As), Cadmium (Cd),) Lead (Pb) and Mercury (Hg) in sauces were analysed using Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (AAS). The pH, total dissolve solids and electrical conductivity were determined using a PC 300 Waterproof Handheld pH/TDS/Conductivity meter. Mean differences in concentration of metals, abundance of microorganisms and physicochemical parameters in samples from households, restaurants and street vendors were compared using Tukey’s B multiple comparison test (p<0.05). Results show that the sauce is always prepared with the main ingredient of pepper and with one or more complimentary ingredients such as onion, tomato, garlic and ginger. The pH of all sauces were acidic and below the recommended WHO standard of pH 6-9. The conductivities and total dissolved solids levels were above WHO recommended standards except for conductivity of sauce from R4 in January and TDS of sauces from R2 in February and R4 in January. Bacteria identified were Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas sp, Shigella sp, and Staphylococcus aureus. Fungi identified were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus ochraceous. In general there was no significant difference between the mean abundance load of Pseudomonas sp, Shigella sp, and Staphylococcus aureus in readyto-eat sauces from households, restaurants and street vendors. All were above recommended standards. Escherichia coli were isolated from sauces sampled from R2 in February and HH1, HH4, R3 and SV4 in March. Total coliform bacteria load ranged from 3.16log10cfu/ml to 5.54 log10cfu/ml, whilst faecal coliform load ranged from 0.00 log10cfu/mlto 4.41 log10cfu/ml. Generally the fungi load was below acceptable levels of contamination. The levels of As ranged from 0.27 to 0.80 mg/kg, Cd from 0.40 to 11.33 mg/kg, Pb from 3.30 to 14.57 mg/kg and Hg from 0.10 to 0.73 mg/kg. The study revealed that ready-to-eat pepper sauce harbours a wide range of enteropathogens and heavy metals contaminants, and hence a potential source for the transmission of diarrhoea pathogens. The result thus, provides useful justification for increased public health education in food hygiene and for proper handling of equipment and ingredients used in the preparation of ready-to-eat pepper sauce in Ghana.

Source: KNUST