Hygiene Assessment of Paper Currency and Fomites Handled by Food Vendors in Covenant University

Fomites have been known to harbor significant amount of microbial load and its handling by food vendors poses a significant risk to consumers. In this study, swab samples were collected from vendors handling paper currency; their food contaminated hands, and selected foods-Akara, Suya and Bole. These fomites were evaluated for organisms that may pose a risk of food infection/contamination. The organisms isolated were identified based on their macroscopic, mi-croscopic and biochemical characteristics and comparison with standard reference organisms. From the results obtained, the paper currency had the highest numbers of bacterial and fungal load (too numerous to count – TNTC), food contaminated hands ranged between 12 x 10⁵- 15 x10⁵ cfu/g and the selected foods- Akara, Suya and Bole had 7x10⁵- 12 x10⁵ cfu/g. The bacteria members' species recorded include Pseudomonas, Streptococcus pyogenes, Shigella, Proteus vulgaris, Escherichia coli, klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella typhi, Enterobacter sp, Aeromonas hydrophila, Micrococcus luteus. Others include Clostridium sp, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Bacillus cereus. The fungal species reported include Aspergillus, Yeast, Penicillium sp. and Saccharomyces spp. Mucor sp. and Rhizopus sp. Members of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were noted to occur on all the samples surveyed. From this study, it can be deduced that handling of paper currencies by food vendors could serve as a direct and indirect pathway for man-microbe interface.