Evaluation of the microbial contamination of hospital-made enteral feedings

ABSTRACT: The quality of enteral feeding formulations prepared at hospital, which are intended for feeding children with malnutrition and diarrhoea, was investigated. A total of eight freshly prepared samples and ten frozen samples were analised. Five of the frozen samples were thawed in the hospital, and the other five in the laboratory, in similar conditions, i. e. in water bath at 50oC. The freshly prepared samples showed mesophilic aerobic bacteria count varying between 10 to 104 CFU/ml. The presence of total coliform (three samples), fecal coliform (two samples) and B. cereus (one sample) was also detected. The samples thawed in the laboratory showed a satisfactory quality whilst the formulations thawed in hospital showed higher mesophiles counts and improper counts of S. aureus (two samples) and B. cereus (one sample). These results were probably due to a erroneous manipulation of some untrained personnel and emphasize the importance to keep a permanent quality control to avoid the occurrence of contamination, specially for feeding formulations intended for populations at high risk. KEYWORDS: Enteral feeding; bacterial contamination; control.