Bacteriological Assessment of Water Quality of Public Swimming Pools in the Accra Metropolis, Ghana

Understanding the routes of contamination of ready-to-eat vegetables in the Middle East

“…Similarly, AL-Jaboobi et al (2013) recorded high counts of S. aureus ≥5 log CFU/g on vegetables irrigated with untreated waste water and polluted river water. Interestingly, a recent study in Ghana further highlight the predominance of this bacterial species (50%) on vegetables from cultivated gardens irrigated with waste water and from the market, with mean CFU of around 10 6 CFU/g from each sampling location (Pesewu et al, 2014). More evidently, high level of methicillin-resistant S aureus was isolated from the raw sewage of examined treatment plants (Pattillo, 2013) and in the wash water of crops (Ofor et al, 2009).…”

Food Security in Ghanaian Urban Cities: A Scoping Review of the Literature

“…The studies were all conducted in urban or peri-urban settings in Ghana. The distribution of the included studies by the geographical regions of Ghana are as follows; twenty-four studies in Greater Accra [ 20 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ], eight studies in Ashanti Region [ 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 ], three studies in the Northern region [ 22 , 59 , 60 ], and two studies each in the Central region [ 61 , 62 ], Western region [ 21 , 63 ], Eastern [ 64 , 65 ]. Volta [ 66 ] and Brong Ahafo [ 67 ] regions contributed one study each, while two studies were conducted in two or more regions [ 49 , 68 ].…”

“…The sample sizes stated in the included studies ranged from 21 (minimum) [ 20 ] to 7000 (maximum) [ 44 ] human participants, and 6 (minimum) [ 56 ] to 3486 (maximum) [ 36 ] food samples. Three studies [ 32 , 43 , 62 ] did not report sample size, and in terms of study designs, all 45 studies were cross-sectional surveys of consumers and or households, and food samples purchased and analysed in the laboratory.…”

“…Overall, the review identified 31 studies that focused on food safety and quality issues in urban Ghana. More than half of these studies ( n = 19) were conducted in the Greater Accra region [ 16 , 20 , 28 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ]. The remaining were conducted in the Ashanti region—7 studies [ 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 58 ], Central region—2 studies [ 61 , 62 ], and one study each was conducted in the Northern [ 59 ], Western region, [ 63 ], and Eastern region [ 64 ], and one study conducted in multiple urban Ghanaian cities [ 68 ].…”

“…In this study, 66% of food proprietors surveyed did not obtained meat supply from approved sources. In the majority of studies, food samples including, vegetables and ready-to-eat fruits salads, meat and fish, analysed in the laboratory, were reportedly contaminated with micro-organisms (bacterial, parasites) or heavy metals, above the acceptable levels for consumption [ 28 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 59 , 62 , 63 , 64 ]. Kortei et al [ 63 ] analysed ready-to-eat salad in the Western region to determine their quality/safety for consumption, and reported that the mean coliforms and E. coli contamination levels in the salad were 6.35 ± 0.09, and 5.1 ± 0.1 log cfu/g, which were above the acceptable safety level.…”