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FACTORS CONTIBUTING TO BACTERIAL DIVERSITY AND LOAD IN BULAWAYO RESTAURANTS, ZIMBABWE

Authors

  • Memory Chihava

    Author

  • Ngalo Otieno-Ayayo

    Author

  • N. Sibanda

    Author

  • M.M. Sibanda

    Author

Keywords:

Food handlers, Bacteria, Bacterial diversity, Supervision, Gender, Bacterial load

Abstract

An analysis of factors contributing to bacterial diversity and count was done on Bulawayo

restaurants. Focus was on equipment, foods, personnel and working surfaces. Twenty five restaurants

were selected using simple random sampling, 57 (n=57) food handlers and 25 (n=25) supervisors

responded to questionnaires. MINITAB was used for data analysis, employing multiple regression

and analysis of variance. Findings revealed that, males are better food handlers than females (t=-

2.86) Facility, supervision, manager’s experience medical checks ups, gender and inspection by

Environmental Health Officers had a highly significant influence on laboratory overall results with a

p value of 0.000 (p=0.01). Hypotheses 3, 4 and 5 were rejected at 0.01 level of significance. Food

service personnel and the environment represent the main sources of contamination.

Author Biographies

  • Memory Chihava

    Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Solusi University, P.O.Solusi, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

  • Ngalo Otieno-Ayayo

    Department of Mathematics, Environmental and Natural Sciences, Solusi University, P.O. Solusi,

    Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

  • N. Sibanda

    Bulawayo City Health Department, Corner L. Takawira and R. Mugabe Street, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

  • M.M. Sibanda

    Bulawayo City Health Department, Corner L. Takawira and R. Mugabe Street, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe

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Published

2025-03-12

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2012)

Section

Articles

License

Articles published in the Baraton Interdisciplinary Research Journal (BIRJ) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. Authors retain copyright of their work while granting BIRJ the right of first publication. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are properly credited.