Occurrence of food borne pathogens in ready-to-eat foods sold in restaurant at Dutsin-Ma Town, Katsina State, North-Western Nigeria.

The bacteriological quality of forty-five ready to eat food samples sold at various restaurants in Dutsin-Ma Restaurants was analyzed for the presence of food borne pathogens. The food samples analyzed were Rice, Beans, Pounded Yam, Stew and Akara from three different Restaurants at Dutsin-Ma metropolis. The highest mean bacterial count was 4.30 x 105 cfu/g, while the highest mean total coliform count was 7.6 x 103 cfu/g. Coagulase negative Staphylococcus aureus has the highest prevalence 40(64.5%) while Shigella has the least 1(1.60%). The findings in this study revealed high bacterial load in the sample analyzed s the presence of these food pathogens at high limit pose great danger to consumers.