Microbial Assessment and Proximate Composition of Pepper (Capsicum annum) and Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Displayed for Sales

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and pepper (Capsicum annuum) are among the world’s most important vegetable crops. A total of 20 samples made up of fresh tomatoes, spoilt tomatoes, fresh pepper and spoilt pepper were analysed in this study. Standard microbiological practices were carried out on the samples. Total Heterotrophic Bacterial (THB) Count for Spoilt tomatoes ranged from 1.98x107cfu/g to 2.39x107cfu/g. Fresh tomatoes samples had a THB counts ranging from 1.43x106cfu/g to 2.14x106cfu/g. Spoilt pepper total heterotrophic bacteria counts ranged from 1.46x107cfu/g to 2.01x107cfu/g. Fresh pepper had a THB count of 1.22x106cfu/g to 1.66x106cfu/g. Spoilt tomatoes samples had a higher fungal count that ranged from 3.5x105cfu/g to 5.25x105cfu/g while the fresh tomatoes samples had lower fungal counts ranging from 1.95x104cfu/g to 3.45x104cfu/g. The spoilt pepper had fungal counts ranging from 1.45x105cfu/g to 2.65x105cfu/g which was higher than that of fresh pepper with a low count of 1.6x104cfu/g to 2.75x104.cfu/g. The bacterial isolates identified during this study are Staphylococcus sp., Escherichia coli, Bacillus sp., klebsiella sp., Pseudomonas sp., Shigella sp., Protues sp., Enterobacter sp., Citrobacter sp., Lactobacillus sp. Micrococcus sp. Listeria sp. Streptococcus sp. and Serratia sp. Spoilt tomatoes had the highest coliform count 1.02x105cfu/g to 9.0x105cfu/g while fresh tomatoes had a lower count of 4.65x105cfu/g to 6.75x105cfu/g. Spoilt pepper recorded coliform counts ranging from 3.8x105cfu/g to 9.4x105cfu/g. Most of the fungi isolated from both the tomatoes and pepper samples were molds and yeast which include Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Candida sp., Saccharomyces sp., Penicillium sp. Mucor sp. and Fusarium sp. Adequate cooking is recommended before consumption.