Study on presence of pathogenic bacteria in serving cutleries from food outlets in and around a medical college

Objective: To isolate and identify pathogenic bacteria present on the serving cutlery items in restaurants and food joints in and around a medical college premises. To create awareness about the hygienic practices among food handlers. Method: A cross sectional study. Collected 100 samples from restaurants and food joints in and around a medical college premises. Sterile swabs moistened with sterile saline was used to collect samples which were then streaked on MacConkey’s agar and incubated overnight at 37°C. The colonies were identified by standard methods. Flyers regarding the importance of hygienic practices was distributed to the food handlers as a step to create awareness among them. The statistical method applied was convenient sampling method and the data was analysed in the table form. Results: In total sample of 100, 33% of the samples were found to have bacteria. The samples from the food joints had slightly higher number of bacteria compared to the samples collected from restaurants. The data collected showed highest number of Klebsiella sp. (4%) followed by Citrobacter (3%) in the samples collected from restaurants. Citrobacter (10%) and Staphylococcus aureus (4%) were seen in the samples collected from food joints. Escherichia coli was identified from one of the samples collected from restaurants. Conclusion: Pathogenic organisms were found in the serving cutleries, screening the cutleries periodically can reduce the spread of food associated infection. Further study is needed to confirm the findings.