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Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors

Microbial transmission, on the surface of any currency note, can either be through direct (hand-to-hand contact) or indirect (food or other inanimate objects) means. To ascertain the degree of bacterial load enumerated during the handling of money and food items, particularly on currency note by den...

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Autores principales: Ofoedu, Chigozie E., Iwouno, Jude O., Agunwah, Ijeoma M., Obodoechi, Perpetual Z., Okpala, Charles Odilichukwu R., Korzeniowska, Małgorzata
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7821755/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33552745
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10795
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author Ofoedu, Chigozie E.
Iwouno, Jude O.
Agunwah, Ijeoma M.
Obodoechi, Perpetual Z.
Okpala, Charles Odilichukwu R.
Korzeniowska, Małgorzata
author_facet Ofoedu, Chigozie E.
Iwouno, Jude O.
Agunwah, Ijeoma M.
Obodoechi, Perpetual Z.
Okpala, Charles Odilichukwu R.
Korzeniowska, Małgorzata
author_sort Ofoedu, Chigozie E.
collection PubMed
description Microbial transmission, on the surface of any currency note, can either be through direct (hand-to-hand contact) or indirect (food or other inanimate objects) means. To ascertain the degree of bacterial load enumerated during the handling of money and food items, particularly on currency note by denominations, should be of public health importance. Despite the available literature regarding microbial contamination of Nigerian currency notes, there is still paucity of information about how microbial contamination/load differ across the denominations specific to different food vendors. In this context, therefore, the current study investigated bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes via a comparative study of different denominations (₦1,000, ₦500, ₦200, ₦100, ₦50, ₦20, and 10, and ₦5) recovered from local food vendors. Specifically, the different food handlers/vendors included fruit, meat, vegetable, fish, and grain/cereal sellers. All emergent data from 8 × 5 factorial design of experiment were of duplicate measurements. To consider the currency denominations and food vendor type, a one-factor-at-a-time analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. Results showed that about 81.7% of currency notes were contaminated with either Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. or Staphylococcus spp. in varying degrees. The higher denominations of ₦500, ₦200, and ₦100 note, with the exception of ₦1,000 note, recorded increased degree of contamination over the lower denominations of ₦50, ₦20, ₦10, and ₦5 note. Based on the total viable count (TVC), the ₦100 currency note appeared the most contaminated (1.32 × 10(5) cfu/ml) whereas ₦5 note appeared the least contaminated (1.46 × 10(4) cfu/ml). The frequency of isolated bacteria on currency notes from vegetable, meat, and fish sellers were significantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to other food vendors. The degree of bacterial contamination of the current work appears chiefly dependent on the food vendor type and currency denomination(s). This work calls for increased awareness and education among food vendors and ready-to-eat food sellers. Doing this would help mitigate the possible cross-contamination between currency notes and foodstuff. Through this, consumers would know more about the potential health risks such simultaneous activities (of handling currency notes and foodstuff) do pose on food safety.
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spelling pubmed-78217552021-02-04 Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors Ofoedu, Chigozie E. Iwouno, Jude O. Agunwah, Ijeoma M. Obodoechi, Perpetual Z. Okpala, Charles Odilichukwu R. Korzeniowska, Małgorzata PeerJ Food Science and Technology Microbial transmission, on the surface of any currency note, can either be through direct (hand-to-hand contact) or indirect (food or other inanimate objects) means. To ascertain the degree of bacterial load enumerated during the handling of money and food items, particularly on currency note by denominations, should be of public health importance. Despite the available literature regarding microbial contamination of Nigerian currency notes, there is still paucity of information about how microbial contamination/load differ across the denominations specific to different food vendors. In this context, therefore, the current study investigated bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes via a comparative study of different denominations (₦1,000, ₦500, ₦200, ₦100, ₦50, ₦20, and 10, and ₦5) recovered from local food vendors. Specifically, the different food handlers/vendors included fruit, meat, vegetable, fish, and grain/cereal sellers. All emergent data from 8 × 5 factorial design of experiment were of duplicate measurements. To consider the currency denominations and food vendor type, a one-factor-at-a-time analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted. Results showed that about 81.7% of currency notes were contaminated with either Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp. or Staphylococcus spp. in varying degrees. The higher denominations of ₦500, ₦200, and ₦100 note, with the exception of ₦1,000 note, recorded increased degree of contamination over the lower denominations of ₦50, ₦20, ₦10, and ₦5 note. Based on the total viable count (TVC), the ₦100 currency note appeared the most contaminated (1.32 × 10(5) cfu/ml) whereas ₦5 note appeared the least contaminated (1.46 × 10(4) cfu/ml). The frequency of isolated bacteria on currency notes from vegetable, meat, and fish sellers were significantly higher (p < 0.05) compared to other food vendors. The degree of bacterial contamination of the current work appears chiefly dependent on the food vendor type and currency denomination(s). This work calls for increased awareness and education among food vendors and ready-to-eat food sellers. Doing this would help mitigate the possible cross-contamination between currency notes and foodstuff. Through this, consumers would know more about the potential health risks such simultaneous activities (of handling currency notes and foodstuff) do pose on food safety. PeerJ Inc. 2021-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC7821755/ /pubmed/33552745 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10795 Text en © 2021 Ofoedu et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Food Science and Technology
Ofoedu, Chigozie E.
Iwouno, Jude O.
Agunwah, Ijeoma M.
Obodoechi, Perpetual Z.
Okpala, Charles Odilichukwu R.
Korzeniowska, Małgorzata
Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
title Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
title_full Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
title_fullStr Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
title_full_unstemmed Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
title_short Bacterial contamination of Nigerian currency notes: A comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
title_sort bacterial contamination of nigerian currency notes: a comparative analysis of different denominations recovered from local food vendors
topic Food Science and Technology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7821755/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33552745
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.10795
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