Objectives

Growing trend of street-vended food in underdeveloped countries offers low-cost food to many sections of population. Although it provides job opportunities to many urban dwellers, several health hazards are associated with this business. The present study investigates the burden of foodborne pathogens in Ready-To-Eat (RTE) beverages in relation to vending practices among street vendors of Rawalpindi City, Pakistan according to standardized methods and protocols.

Materials and Methods

Six densely populated locations of Rawalpindi city were selected. Commonly consumed sugar cane juice (SCJ) and tamarind prune (dried plums) drink (TPD) (locally called as Imli Alu Bukhara sherbet) from five vendors from each location were chosen in summer season where the temperature reaches above 40°C. Mean and the standard deviation were obtained by univariate and bivariate analyses. Association between the study variables was assessed through cross-tabulations, chi-square, and correlation tests.

Results

All the samples were found unsatisfactory in comparison to guidelines of aerobic plate count. Total coliform was observed in 86.7 per cent of SCJ and 70.0 per cent of TPD samples. Fourteen samples of SCJ exceeded the limit of >1100 MPN/ml value, whereas samples of TPD exceeded this limit for Escherichia coli. All of SCJ and 93.3 per cent of TPD samples depicted the presence of Salmonella aureus. Salmonella spp. were found significantly high in 73.3 per cent samples of SCJ and 23.3 per cent samples of TPD.

Conclusions

The incidence of high bioloads attributes towards a potential reservoir of foodborne pathogens due to unhygienic vending practices.