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Background: Infant foods are prepared with varieties of cereals and legumes which provide essential nutrients for healthy growth and immune development. However, infant foods can be contaminated with moulds and mycotoxins, especially aflatoxins which can lead to stunted growth, liver damage, and liver cancer, particularly, in children. This pilot study investigated the contamination of locally-processed infant foods sold at antenatal units of selected hospitals in the Kumasi Metropolis. Materials and Methods: Twenty-four different food samples were brought from the Hospitals and analyzed for mould and aflatoxin contaminations. Moulds were enumerated and identified using Malt Extract Agar (MEA) while Quechers method and HPLC were used to investigate the presence of aflatoxins in the food samples. Result: Findings showed that 87.5% of the samples were contaminated with moulds, with 20.8% beyond the tolerable limit for consumption. Genus of moulds identified were Aspergillus (79%) being the most predominant genus followed by Penicillium (37.5%), Alternaria (16.7%), Blastomyces (12.5%) and Curvularia (4.2%). About 91.7% of the samples were contaminated with aflatoxins with 45.8% exceeding the tolerable limit (20ng/g) for consumption. Types of aflatoxin present were aflatoxin B2 (AFB2) being prevalent in the samples, followed by AFB1 then AFG1 and AFG2. Conclusion: Children and infants fed with these locally-processed foods may be exposed to unacceptable levels of moulds and aflatoxins. Therefore, there is a critical need to educate local food producers and processors of the health implications of contamination and develop innovative ideas to eliminate the exposure of infants from these toxins and moulds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increase of food borne diseases in Ghana and therefore a lot of street food studies have been conducted in Kumasi, the Ashanti Region of Ghana with less information on microbiological safety of hotel foods. A total of forty food samples were aseptically collected from five highly patronised hotels (three star to budget). The hotels were selected by simple random sampling. Standard methods were used for the dilution, spreading, incubation, enumeration and identification. Serial dilution of each food was prepared in buffered peptone water and inoculated onto malt extract agar (MEA). Growth were counted and later identified. The bacterial counts were expressed to log10 cfu/g. Two foods from Hotel 01 (fresh pepper sauce and chicken and vegetable sauce) and six foods from Hotel 02 (chicken with noodles and vegetables, joll of rice, fried rice, potato chips, beef in vegetable sauce and coleslaw) were above the WHO acceptable levels (< 3 Log 10 cfu/g). Again, 4 foods from Hotel 03 (boiled plain rice, fish light soup, tossed mixed vegetables and tossed salad), Hotel 04 (vegetable sauce, fried chicken, mixed salad and fried rice) and Hotel 05 (goat light soup, fried chicken, fried rice and mixed vegetable salad) were all above the WHO acceptable levels. Fungi isolated were Eurotium herbariorum, Aureobasidium pullulans, Alternaria alternate, Botrytis cineria and Fusarium oxysporu. It was observed that foods tested were above the acceptable levels and could be sources of food borne pathogens. The causes could be attributed to poor food hygiene and inadequate processing. It is recommended that hotel inspections should include microbial test on foods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hotel industry in Ghana forms one of the sectors of the hospitality industry that offer catering services for profit. People within the high socioeconomic group as well as foreigners patronize prepared food from the hotels with the assumption that foods sold from these hotels are prepared under good hygienic conditions and that the food handlers will practice food safety. In this study, 39 hotel kitchen staffs were evaluated on food safety through semi-structured questionnaire on demographics, knowledge and practices on food safety/hygiene as well as kitchen sanitation. Results indicated that females comprising 56.4%, dominated the hotel food preparation establishment. All the respondents were educated. 74.4 % kitchen staff members were aware of the causes of food poisoning while 35 (89.7 %) were aware that microorganisms can be found in refrigerated foods. All subjects responded positively to the washing of hands during food preparation with over 87.2% indicating that the hands should be washed after touching something different from what is being cooked. In the case of items used to wipe hands, 71% (28) used kitchen napkin. Respondents who were medically examined were 82.7% (34) with only 7.7 % (3) who were employed without medical checkup. In the area of sanitation, 94.9% (37) respondents used fly-proof doors in their kitchens while 66.7% respondents know that cooking environment should be cleaned in the morning, afternoon and evening. Thirty eight (97.4%) respondents disinfected their work surfaces when required. Thus, the research revealed that most hotel kitchen staff from the ten hotels studied, had adequate knowledge of food safety and kitchen hygiene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]