Microbiological quality of selected street foods from Antananarivo on 2016-2017: public health implications

People in a big city as Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar, have leads to take street foods for their daily nutritional needs. This food habits may be a risk for consumers due to contaminations from street environment and bad practices related to hygiene. This study aimed to examine the quality and safety of street vended foods in Antananarivo, on January 2016 to December 2017.Six hundred and sixty two samples including 126samples of melting salads, 70 beef skewers, 54 chicken skewers, and typical Malagasy foods as : mofoanana (67 samples), mofogasy (64 samples), ramanonaka (64), makasaoka (66), mofoakondro (62) and kobandravina(89);were randomly collected from the streetvendors in Antananarivo marketsto evaluate their bacteriological quality.International Methods (ISO) was adopted for to find the load of Total Aerobic Bacteria andEnterobateriaceae,Escherichia coli and to search pathogen bacteria as Salmonella, Campylobacter jejuni, Escherichia coli O157H7 and Bacillus cereus in these foods.The results revealed that the mean values ofthe Total Aerobic Bacteria count was 0.1x106 - 4.8x106 cfu/g. Enterobacteriaceaecount range from 0.4x102 to 1.9x102 cfu/g. Escherichia coli count range from 0.04x102 cfu/g. to 0.19 x102 cfu/g.Salmonellawas only present in melting salads, beef skewers and chicken skewers samples. Bacillus cereus count range from 0,1x102 to 1,5x102 cfu/g. Campylobacter jejuniwas only present in samples of ramanonaka and kobandravina. Two strains of presumptive Eschercichia coli O157 H7 (βglucuronidase -) were isolated. PCR method was used to confirm the identity of these two isolates. A high contamination above 106 cfu/g food and the presence of potential pathogens bacteria could be hazardous. Systematic inspections and training of food vendors on food hygiene and application of hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) has been recognised as measures to guarantee improvement of the quality of street foods.