Risk of Antibacterial Resistance in Street-vended and Expired Food Items Collected from Different Places of Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Street food contamination has become an important public health issue and a great concern to everybody. This is due to the lack of an adequate understanding of the basic food safety issues. The place of preparation, utensils for cooking and serving, raw materials, time and temperature abuse of cooked foods and the personal hygiene of vendors are the major sources contributing to microbial contamination. Street foods are available in almost each and everywhere such as in a market, fair, park or other public places. The popular street foods are phucka, chotpothi, belpuri, samucha, daalPuri, lassi, pakura, halim and many more. Expired foods are those which are not safe to eat and the goal is to ensure quality for a period of time after buying it. Food borne illnesses of microbial origin are a major health problem associated with street foods. People, who patronize street food, have been reported to suffer from food borne diseases like diarrhea, cholera, typhoid fever, jaundice and food poisoning. Therefore, microbial contamination, food safety, street food condition and other factors are important to avoid street food contamination. Identified foodborne bacteria and antibiotic resistance isolates can create a public health problem. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the antibacterial susceptibility against the microorganism present in the street and expired food items in different areas of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. Twenty five (25) samples were taken from different places in Dhaka city. The tested samples were singara, samucha, noodles, fuchka, mayonnaise, kabab,beguni, sandwich, chicken shashlik, chicken patties, vegetable, and different types of biscuits, ghugni and many more. All these are native foods available in the street and different places.We have used the seven antibacterial discs such as ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, gentamycin, kanamycin, penicillin G, tetracycline, and vancomycin. Our study shows that penicillin G and vancomycin are resistant antibiotics against the isolated bacteria. Erythromycin and tetracycline are intermediate antibiotic that means a higher dose of the antibiotics is needed to prevent the bacterial growth. Gentamycin, kanamycin and ciprofloxacin showed susceptibility against the microorganisms. The study confirms considerable contaminations in street/ expired foods and antibiotic resistance have been identified against the microorganisms.