BACTERIOLOGICAL EXAMINATION OF FRIED SNAIL

ABSTRACT: This study was carried out to identify and characterise common bacterial consumed in eating contaminated hawked fried snails. Fried snail is a ready to eat food sold in various locations in Ikot Ekpene especially the Polytechnic environment. A microbiological method was used to select and assess samples of snails. A total of four bacterial which includes Hsteria Innocua, staphylococcus aureus, micrococais agilis, and Bacillus Sp were isolated from the samples. The result showed that the highest bacteria load were (3.5 x 105 cfu/g) followed by (2.8 x 105 cfu/g) followed by (1.6 x 102 cfu/g) and (1.4 x 102 cfu/g). the result further revealed that some of the snail samples had unhealthy bacterial load which is detrimental to health and against the world health standards for feeding.