Microbiological Safety of Powdered Infant Formula for Infants below Six Months of Age in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
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Date
2020-12
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Background: In terms of food safety infants are considered to be one of the highest risk groups
because their resistantancy system is not wholly developed. Powdered infant formula issued in
instances when breastfeeding is not possible or inadequate as a substitute but it is not a
completely microbial free product and is sometimes a vehicle for certain pathogens like
Cronobacter species and others.
Objective: the purpose of this work was to determine or evaluate the microbial quality of infant
powdered formula milk for Infants which are lower than six months of age.
Methods: A cross sectional study was done on 106 Infant Powdered formula milk samples
collected from Addis Ababa city between March and June 2020 to assess the microbial quality
using mesophilic aerobic colony count, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, and pathogens Salmonella
and Cronobacter species using standard ISO methods at EPHI and SPSS version 20 was used for
analysis and mostly descriptive statistics were employed.
Results: Mesophilic aerobic counts were detected in 9.4% (n=20) of the samples.
Enterobacteriaceae and total coliforms were detected in 9.4% (n=10) and 7.5% (n=8).
Cronobacter species were also detected with a prevalence rate of 5.6% (n=6/106) and no
Salmonella species was detected in this study.
Conclusion: This study shows that quality parameters and the incidence of the Cronobacter
species were 5.6% (6/106). These findings are all out of the recommended international
specifications by Codex of Alimentarius Commission.
Recommendation: The result of this study contributes to the knowledge used in monitoring the
health problem of infants that come from PIF milk contamination. It will raise the producers and
health regulatory body of Ethiopia since the consequence of these products could pose very great
public damage as it is imported and consumed in mass to the infants in Ethiopia.
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Keywords
Powdered Infant Formula, Cronobacter species, Salmonella species, Mesophilic Aerobic Colony Count, Enterobacteriaceae.