Excellenta Ofure OAMEN

The research was carried out to evaluate the spoilage microorganisms of tomatoes sold in Benin City. Standard bacteriological methods were used to enumerate the total bacterial and fungal count of the tomatoes using pour plate methods after serial dilution. The bacterial isolates were characterized and identified using morphological and biochemical methods and sugar fermentation test. The percentage distribution and frequency of the isolates were evaluated using statistical method. The result obtained in this study showed that the highest bacterial, coliform and fungal population was obtained in Adolor sample with values of 6.07554±1.00, 5.09691±0.5 and 4.767155±0.5 log10 cfu/g respectively while the least bacterial, coliform and fungal count was obtained from Uselu and Ekosodin samples with values of 5.35218±2.00, 3.69897±1.00 and 4.32221±1.00 log10 cfu/g respectively. Using the cultural and morphological characteristics, the fungal isolates obtained in this study were Aspergillus niger, Trichoderma sp, Penicillium sp and Rhizopus arrhizus while the bacterial isolates obtained were Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp, Salmonella sp, Shigella sp, Klebsiella sp and Staphylococcus sp. From the result, isolates were resistance to many of the antibiotics including, collistin, Erytromycin, metronidazole and clindamycin but were susceptible to ciprofloxacin, augmentin and gentamycin. The result in this study has shed light into the gaining of entrance of food borne pathogens as well as some spoilage microorganisms (mostly fungi) during selling, harvesting and cultivation which may result in food poisoning.