Asian Journal of Food Research and Nutrition

The pharmaceutical benefits of fruits to humans is unfolding daily, thus, ensuring its Microbiological quality for the safety of final consumers is of paramount importance. Smoothie combinations made of paw-paw, banana, bene-seed (PPBNBS), orange, water melon, banana (ORWMBN), orange, banana, pineapple (ORBNPN) and paw-paw, watermelon, banana (PPWMBN) were prepared and analyzed as fresh (analyzed immediately after preparation), room temperature (analyzed after 24 hrs of preparation on bench) and refrigerated (kept in the refrigerator for 24 hrs after preparation). The mean colony count for refrigerated smoothie drink was 1.0-9.0 x 10⁵ Cfu/mL, 1.0-8.0 x 10⁵ for smoothie kept at room temperature and 1.0-5.0 x 10⁵ Cfu/mL for freshly analyzed drink. The high mean count observed among the refrigerated drink may be interpreted as high concentration of psychrophilic organisms. Nine (9) genera of Microorganisms were isolated and identified. Rothia, Micrococcus, Paenibacillus, Klebsiella and Lactobacillus had similar 11.11 % rate of occurrence.  Enterococcus sp were 22.22 % abundant. Bacillus and Staphylococcus sp both had 33.3 % occurrence, while 44.4 % being the most abundant was recorded for Streptococcus sp. Among the identified organisms, Gram positive were the most frequent isolates occurring 8 (88.9%) compared to 1 (11.11%) of Gram negative organisms. The distribution of isolated organisms were not influenced (P = 0.05) by the fruits combinations, neither the analyzed conditions. Although, the orange, banana, pineapple (ORBNPN) combination tend to have more 40% isolates occurrence compared to other three (PPBNBS, PPWMBN and ORWMBN) smoothie combinations with even distribution of isolates at 20% occurrence rate. Though Streptococcus sp were the most abundant 44.4 % strain of isolated organisms, Staphylococcus sp were presence in all smoothies’ combination. The results of the index study report higher than acceptable colony count in fruit drink according to the Microbiological Criteria (GULF standard, 2000). And the isolated organisms are prominent indicators pathogens of foodborne infection. This therefore implies that, smoothie’s drink that are not properly handled during preparation can serve as a potential threat and a salience vehicle for foodborne intoxication and possible outbreak.