Microbial Evaluation of Spices in Ethiopia

Introduction: Since spices are taken as ready-to-eat products, they are not subjected to heat treatment. The use of spices contaminated with pathogens can lead to morbidity and mortality. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted on 162 samples of 25 spices collected from retail and production sites in different regions of Ethiopia between January 2010 to December 2017 to determine the concentrations of heterotrophic plate count and Staphylococcus aureus by pour plate method; for coliforms using NMKL Method No. 44; for mould and yeast enumeration using spread method and for Salmonella using ES ISO 6579. The data was analysed using SPSS version 20.0. Results: Moulds, yeasts, total coliforms, heterotrophic plate count, total coliforms, thermotolerant coliforms, E. coli and S. aureus above the acceptable limits were observed in 5 (3%), 7 (4.3%), 2 (1.2%), 20 (12.3%), 10 (6.2%), 9 (5.6%) and 19 (11.7%) samples respectively. Salmonella species was not notice d in any of the samples tested. No bacterial and fungal contaminations were observed in 11 of 25 spices. Conclusions: Few spices samples had 1.2 to 12.3% of the microbiological indicators, spoilages or pathogens exceeded the ICMFS guidelines. The use of these contaminated spices may pose risk to human health.