Antibiogram of bacterial pathogens isolated from one of the most popular street food (panipuri) of Dehradun

Abstract

India is a country where each city boasts of its own unique street food and a large percentage of population relishes these delicacies. The most popular street foods in India are Panipuri or Gol gappas and Papdi chaat among others. The present study attempts to assess the bacteriology of khatta pani and masala sold with Gol Gappas in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand, India, in an attempt to throw light on the inherent risk associated with such foods. Panipuri samples were collected from different locations of Dehradun and analysed for the presence and count of pathogenic bacteria and their susceptibility to various antibiotics. Total Viable Count, Total Coliform Count and Total Staphylococcal Count were found to be in the range of 65 x 10⁴ to 74 x 10⁵, 36 x 10² to 64 x 10⁵ and 62 x 10⁴ to 45 x 10⁶ respectively. Six isolates were tentatively identified as Aeromonas sp., Klebsiella sp., Bacillus sp., Escherichia sp., Micrococcus sp. and Pseudomonas sp. Antibiotic sensitivity test was performed against 8 antibiotics, in which Klebsiella sp. was inhibited by all the antibiotics used. Aeromonas sp. and Micrococcus sp. showed resistance to Penicllin G and Vanomycin and were inhibited by the rest, while Bacillus sp., Escherichia sp. and Pseudomonas sp. showed resistance to Vanomycin. Based on this test, MRI% was calculated and was found to be in the range of 12.5 to 25% for all the isolates. Our study shows high level of contamination in one of the most popular Indian street food, Panipuri. Therefore, regular monitoring is required for safety against these food-borne pathogens.