Microbial Quality Spectrum of Packed and Fresh Fruit Juices in Gondar Town Supermarkets and Cafes, Northwestern Ethiopia

Packed and fresh fruit juices are important parts of the diet of all age groups due to associated health benefits. However, these food sources are highly perishable and affected by different microbial contaminants from the processes of production to consumption. In this regard, an assessment of the microbial quality spectrum of packed and fresh fruit juices was done. The objective was to evaluate the status of microbe free food handling of the cafes and super markets. Cross sectional study was used as a study design. A total of 48 fruit juice samples were analyzed for Aerobic Mesophilic Count, total coliform, mold and yeast count and pathogen detection. The data was analyzed using one way ANOVA by spss version 20. The results revealed that mean values for Aerobic Mesophilic Count ranged from 7.24 X 10³ to 2.68 X 10³ cfu/ml for packed and 5.2 X 10⁴ to 4.5 X 10³ cfu /ml for fresh fruit juice. The total coliform count ranged from 3.89 X 10³ to 2.55 X 10³ cfu/ml for packed and 1.76 X 10⁴ to 1.36 X 10³ cfu/ml for fresh juice. Mold and yeast count ranged from 1.35 X 10² to 1.78 X 10² cfu/ml for packed and 2.4 X 10² to 3.4 X 10² cfu/ml for fresh juice. Two genera of molds (Alternaria spp. and Fusarum spp.) were isolated from 60 samples. Statistically significant difference (P=0.021 < 0.05) was recorded between Rani and Apple on Aerobic Mesophilic Count. Similarly, significant difference (p=0.002 < 0.05) was recorded between Rani Mango and Pine apple for total coliform counts. A highly significant mean difference (p=0.0 < 0.05) was obtained for total yeast and mould counts. The highest detected species was Staphylococcus aureus (16, 26.6%) from fresh and packed juice samples whereas, the least was Salmonella spp. (5, 8.3%) from fresh juice samples. Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. were absent in all packed fruit juice samples. All the pathogens were sensitive to gentamicin but resistant to amoxicillin. The microbial quality spectrum of packed fruit juice was better than that of fresh juice samples collected from local cafe