Evaluation of Microbial Bacterial and Fungal Contamination of Barkers Sold in Bread Benghazi City Markets

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Bread serves as a staple food in most countries around the world, particularly Libya, because it is inexpensive and abundantly available. Microbiological decomposition is frequently a primary factor limiting the shelf life of bread and bakery products; also, bread spoiling caused by microbial growth produces negative health consequences for consumers and economic losses for both manufacturers and consumers. The study's objectives were to evaluate and assess bacterial contamination detected in bread from Barker's markets in Benghazi, Libya, as well as to identify microorganisms linked with bread storage and bacteriological quality assessment for the bread-making process in Benghazi. A total of 100 samples were obtained at random from 25 bread- making and marketing sites. The majority of the samples were fresh bread, which was transported to the laboratory for analysis in a sterile environment. A descriptive statistic, chi-squared, and t-test were used to examine the data at P=0.05 level. The data analysis found that around 80% of the samples were contaminated with poor food hygiene, with 59% representing fungal contamination and 21% representing bacteria contamination. There was a significant link between microbial contamination on surfaces (p=0.001), food safety, and hygiene (p=0.002) of the randomly collected samples. Bread analysis revealed that two-thirds of the bread sampled from the two bakeries (60%) and nearly all of the bread sampled from the bread sellers (40%) were contaminated