Food Contamination from Catering Services in Khartoum Teaching Hospital

Food poisoning is a term used to describe an illness brought about by eating food or drink contaminated with harmful microbes. The three scientific causes of food poisoning are bacteria, viral or chemical "either naturally occurring in food or introduced" Pathogenic organisms are thought to be widely distributed among food handlers and bacteria can be found everywhere; in the environment, on our bodies, the soil, water, air and in the food we eat. Many types of bacteria are useful and essential to our health and survival but there are certain strains of bacteria known as pathogenic bacteria that are harmful to humans this study aimed to assess the prevalence of some pathogenic bacteria due to poor food catering services and study possible contamination causes when food not consumed immediately. This study was conducted in Khartoum teaching hospital, mostly in dietetic units. This hospital has about 50 food services workers and 400 beds. A total of 65 different samples (ready to eat food and swab samples taken from workers hands and utensils) were collected and sent for bacteriological culture. The results obtained in this study varied and the dominant bacteria isolated were Staphylococcus species (55.6%), Escherichia coli, Micrococcus, Aerococcus viridians, Staphylococcus epidermidis and Corynebacterium species. These were present in samples of ready to eat food taken from wards (95%) and the hospital kitchen (85%). Approximately 48% of swab samples were also positive. We concluded that the bacteria isolated from different samples are an indication of poor hygiene practices of the catering system in the intended hospital. We suggest that food should be brought to the patients immediately to avoid any microorganism growth. Food workers must strictly follow food hygiene and safety regulations.