Evaluation of microbial contamination in the plastic bottled and polythene packaged juices around Kampala, Uganda

Abstract

In Uganda, day by day, new brands of bottled beverages are emerging on the market. However several reports have indicated that many of these brands do not pass the quality regulatory standards set by the national standards body and could pose health risks due to microbial contamination levels .This study therefore evaluated the microbial contamination levels in the different brands commonly sold on the market in Kampala city. The beverage brands that will be analysed will mainly include; Bushera drink, Banana Juice commonly known as “Eshande”, Tayebwa products, Kazire products, kisakyamuzade, minute maid, afia, U-fresh fruit drink Kanywe drink among others. This was mainly done by carrying out different microbial quantitative tests like Total Aerobic Plate count, fecal coliforms total coliforms. All these tests were aseptically be carried out using the different suitable standard methods. The results obtained indicated that the bottled juices had microbial Total plate count values less than 9×103 CFU/ml and these are within the acceptable ranges when compared with the values set by UNBS. The polythene packaged juices had the total plate count values of up to 4.8×107 CFU/ml and these values were above the range of the accepted references set by the UNBS. The bottled juices did not have coliform organisms while some of the polythene packaged juices had the coliforms as well as E.coli, the fecal indicator organims. It was concluded that the bottled juices had the accepted microbial levels and the polythene packaged juices were above the acceptable ranges. The Bushera products had the highest microbial load. The study recommended that the producers of Bushera and other polythene packed juices should use boiled water in their production and use sterile containers during packaging.