THE EFFECT OF TOXIN PRODUCTION OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS SPECIES SOLD IN SOME RESTAURANTS
1.1 Background to the Study
Ready to eat foods can be described as the status of foods of being ready for immediate consumption at the point of sale. Ready to eat foods could be raw or cooked, hot or chilled and can be consumed without further heat treatment (Tsang, 2002). Different terms have been used to describe such ready to eat foods. These includes convenient, ready, instant and fast foods. Examples of such ready to eat foods include pastries, chicken pie, meat pie sausage rolls, Burger, moin moon salad , fried meat, milk and milk products ( Caserani and Kinston, 1974). A general observation of our society shows a social pattern characterized by increased mobility. Large numbers of itinerary workers and less family or home centered activities. This situation however has resulted in more ready to eat foods taken outside home. Thus food vendor services become on the increase and responsibility for good manufacturing practices of food such as good sanitary measures and proper food handling have been transferred from individuals/ families to the food vendors who rarely enforces such practices (Musa and Akande, 2002).
According to Doyle and Evans (1999), Food borne diseases are diseases resulting from ingestion of bacteria, toxins and cells produced by micro organisms present in food. Food borne illnesses is a major international health problem with consequent economic reduction (Duff et al., 2003). Outbreaks of food borne diseases are caused by foods that are contaminated intrinsically or that become contaminated during harvesting, processing or preparation (Torok et al., 1997). In most countries, the most common food borne illness is Staphylococcus food intoxication (Talaro et al., 1996). Staphylococcus aureus is a gram positive coccus, resistant to heat, drying and radiation. Its strains can be pathogenic and relatively non pathogenic. They produce some enzymes which are implicated with Staphylococcal invasiveness and mainly extracellular substances some of which are heat stable enterotoxins that render the foods dangerous even though it appears normal ( Prescott et al., 2005). Once the bacteria have produced toxin, the food can be extensively and properly cooked, killing the bacteria without destroying the toxin. This is why there is need to screen ready to eat foods such as chicken pie for toxin produced by Staphylococcus species.
1.2 Problem Statement
In Nigeria, a number of foods have been reported to have high incidence of bacteria (Adesiyun, 1995; Okonko et al., 2009). But there is limited information on the health challenges from food borne diseases from chicken pie retailed within a highly populous community. Hence there is need to do screen for toxin production production of Staphylococcus species.
