Bacteriological quality of street-vended um-jingir: A traditional Sudanese food

What is it about?

Um-Jingir is a fermented indigenous Sudanese food product made mainly from cooked grinded pearl millet to which sugar, yogurt, lemon and salt will be added upon serving. It is vended by women and widely consumed by workers in industrial areas in Khartoum State, Sudan. Sixty samples of Um-Jingir were randomly collected from vending women near industrial areas in Khartoum State over a period of three months from 21st of May to 5th of September 2007. The study was focused on determining the bacteriological quality and safety of street vended Um-Jingir. Microbial analysis resulted in aerobic plate counts from 3 ×104 to 3.5×107 colony forming unit (cfu)/ml, while MacConkey’s agar counts ranged from 2×102 to 2.7 ×103 cfu/ml and mannitol salt agar growth of about 2×102 to 1.6×103 cfu/ ml. Total coliforms ranged from 3 to 1400 MPN/100 ml. Bacillus spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. were detected in 70, 68.3, 6.6, and 5% of samples, respectively. Pseudomonas spp. and several Enterobacteriaceae species were isolated including Proteus spp., Klebsiella spp., Hafnia spp. and Escherichia spp. The minimum pH of Um-Jingir samples was 3.4, whereas the highest pH was 6.7. Alteration of the classic formula by omitting yoghurt and replacing it with citric acid showed that the nutritional value of Um-Jingir could be reduced to meet the low price requirements. Observation of Um-Jingir vending places showed that they were crowded, unclean and the sanitary levels were low. In spite of the high nutritional value of this product and its importance for low income consumers, the established results in addition to close observation of Um-Jingir marketing conditions indicated that consumption of street vended Um-Jingir might have negative effects on public health. Therefore, vending this type of food requires more attention from health authorities, better educational programmes for vendors and improvements of preparation and handling environment.

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