Assessment of quality and safety of street vended sugar cane juice in Dar es salaam region, Tanzania
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Date
2018
Authors
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Publisher
Sokoine Univesirty of Agriculture
Abstract
Human infections and diseases outbreaks have been found in unpasteurized street vended
juices. So, there is a need to analyse the quality and safety of street vended juices for
human consumption. A study was conducted to assess the quality and safety of sugarcane
juice vended along the streets and restaurants in all three districts of Dar es Salaam city,
Tanzania. A total of 60 samples of sugarcane juice were collected and studied during the
months of September, 2017 to August, 2018 and vendors were interviewed followed by
physical-chemical and microbiological laboratory analysis. The results for unpasteurized
sugarcane juices showed that the pH of the juices ranged between 3.6 to 5.9 while the
acidity ranged from 0.083% to 0.084%. The total soluble solids (TSS) ranged between 2.4
to 22.1°Brix. Most of unpasteurized sugarcane juice had TSS levels below Codex
recommended minimum values and 72.1% (n=60) were classified as weak and watery. On
microbial analysis the total plate counts (TPC) of the juices ranged between 3.9 to 6.7 log
(cfu/ml). About 90.1% (n=60) of sugarcane juice samples had TPC above Codex
recommended maximum levels of 3.5-4 logcfu/ml. The results of E. coli ranged from
0.61-4.6 log cfu/ml were above recommended by Tanzania Standards (TZS 585:2003)
Codex general standards). Prevalence of 96.6% of all the samples were contaminated with
E. coli. The results of pasteurized sample showed significantly different (p<0.05) in TPC
and E. coli levels as compared to unpasteurized sugarcane juice. Generally, 81.6% of
vending premises were unhygienic and encouraged contamination of the sugarcane juice.
It is concluded that, the overall handling practices of unpasteurized sugarcane vended in
Dar es Salaam city was poor. Based on the results there is an immediate need of
monitoring and educating vendors to improve sugarcane juice quality and safety.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Human infections, Outbreaks diseases, Human consumption, Dar es Salaam city, Microbiological laboratory analysis