Antibiotic Sensitivity Profile of Microorganisms Isolated from Foods Sold in Selected Elementary Schools in Ilorin Metropolis

Globally, the estimated amount of food found to be contaminated from schools particularly in developing countries keeps increasing. As a result of this, the federal government of Nigeria resulted into free food programme for elementary schools in the 36 States. This study aims at looking at the microbial loads of organisms present in the foods and its antibiotic sensitivity and how it can help the government in strategizing or re-strategizing their plans. A cross-sectional study was conducted in Ilorin metropolis within three local government areas (South, West, and East) with a total of 128 food samples. Microbiological assay were conducted on samples obtained from the elementary schools. The samples collected were cultured on three culture media (Blood agar, MacConkey agar and Saboroud Dextrose agar) and incubated at 37°C. Characterization of isolates to specie level was done using their morphological appearance, colour of colonies, growth pattern, biochemical test and gram staining. Also antibiotic sensitivity test was also done using the disc diffusion method. Some of the organism isolated from food sampled were Staphylococcus epidermis, Proteus vulgaris, Streptococcus lactics, E. coli, and Candida albicans and they were resistant to Streptomycin, Cloxacilin, Ampicillin e.t. c and sensitive to Ofloxacin, Perfloxacin, Vancomycin e.t.c. Generally, this study reveals that out of the foods sold in the three local government, 30.7% of the foods are acceptable, 9.7% tolerable and 67.8% unacceptable according to the International Commission for Microbiological Specification for foods.