How far these Road Side Vended Fresh Fruit Juices are Safe for consumption ?

Prof.Dr. BANDARU NARASINGA RAO; Prof.Dr.N.RAMAKRISHNA; Dr.D.VIJAYA BHARATHI; Mr.SRINIVAS BUDATI

Volume : V, Issue : VI, June - 2016

How far these Road Side Vended Fresh Fruit Juices are Safe for consumption ?

Prof. Dr. Bandaru Narasinga Rao, Prof. Dr. N. Ramakrishna, Dr. D. Vijaya Bharathi, Mr. Srinivas Budati

Abstract :

 Background: Fruits or the extracted fresh juices are essential components of the human diet and there is considerable evidence of the health and nutritional benefits associated with the consumption of fresh fruits. Until recently, roadside vended unpasteurized fruit juices have been considered non-hazardous with respect to microbiological pathogens due to their acidic nature. However, in light of the many Indian and global outeaks of food borne associated illnesses with these products, it is apparent that certain bacterial, viral and parasitic pathogens can survive these acidic conditions and remain infectious. The most likely mechanisms by which fresh fruit juice, and the fruit it is processed from becomes contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms are through direct contact with animal or human faeces, or indirect contact with contaminated water, ice, soil, processing equipment, infected food handlers or through the containers they serve. Objective: The present idea of this study is to assess the microbiological quality of the road side vended unpasteurized fresh fruit juices and estimate their safety for consumption. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate the microbiological quality of locally prepared fresh fruit juices by choosing 12 crowded fresh fruit juice shops on the road side in the city for collection of samples. Ten varieties of fruit juices were included namely orange, grape, mango, pineapple, pomegranate, watermelon, musk melon, sapota, banana and papaya. These samples were collected aseptically and processed for possible contamination by bacteria or fungi. Results: A total of 120 locally prepared fresh fruit juice samples were analysed, from which 162(78.02%) bacterial strains and 43(20.98%) fungal strains were isolated. All most all the samples were contaminated by one or more than one microorganism. Among the bacterial isolates, Esch. coli was the major isolate with 25.37% and among fungal, Aspergillus Spp. (6.83%). Papaya and sapota were highly contaminated while grape and promegranate were the least contaminated. Various parameters were observed at the juice centres for possible contamination of these fresh extracted fruit juices. Conclusion: It is an alarming situation and local health authorities should take some concrete action, make guidelines to prevent potential food poisoning from juices that contain pathogenic bacteria. This is high time that government should frame a licensing system under the supervision of local health authorities to check the possible contamination of these fresh fruit juices vended by road side/street vendors.