ABSTRACT

 

Juices made from fresh fruits that were improperly prepared are one of the main causes of food borne illnesses. In this study, the microbial qualities of some freshly prepared fruit juices were assessed.  A total of 200 fresh fruit juice samples of mango, pineapple, orange, pomegranates and sugarcane were collected. The pour plate method was used to determine the total viable count of the sample. The pathogenic bacteria investigated were Bacillus E. coli, S. aureus, Lactobacillus, Acetobactor, Salmonella and Shigella using appropriate growth media. Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium sp., Fusarium, Colleotrichum and Alternaria are the predominant moulds found in fruit juices. Yeast isolates such as Saccharomyces, Candida and Rhodotorula were also observed in freshly prepared fruit juices. It was found that sugarcane and orange juices were highly contaminated with microbes. Fungal contamination was dominant over bacterial contamination. It has been determined that the microbial load in fresh fruit juices is significantly greater than the normal permissible limits, suggesting that it may play an important role in food spoilage and food-borne illnesses. There is a need for some regulations that can improve the quality of fruit juices because some of the microorganisms found in these juice samples can cause disease in human and also produce mycotoxins which cause cancer.

​

​

Keywords    fresh fruit juice, bacterial, fungal, Contamination, food-borne illnesses.