FACTORS CONTIBUTING TO BACTERIAL DIVERSITY AND LOAD IN BULAWAYO RESTAURANTS, ZIMBABWE

Article Details

Authors: Memory Chihava, Ngalo Otieno-Ayayo, N. Sibanda, M.M. Sibanda (Author)

Published: 2025-03-12

Pages: 7-19

An analysis of factors contributing to bacterial diversity and count was done on Bulawayo

restaurants. Focus was on equipment, foods, personnel and working surfaces. Twenty five restaurants

were selected using simple random sampling, 57 (n=57) food handlers and 25 (n=25) supervisors

responded to questionnaires. MINITAB was used for data analysis, employing multiple regression

and analysis of variance. Findings revealed that, males are better food handlers than females (t=-

2.86) Facility, supervision, manager’s experience medical checks ups, gender and inspection by

Environmental Health Officers had a highly significant influence on laboratory overall results with a

p value of 0.000 (p=0.01). Hypotheses 3, 4 and 5 were rejected at 0.01 level of significance. Food

service personnel and the environment represent the main sources of contamination.

Food handlers, Bacteria, Bacterial diversity, Supervision, Gender, Bacterial load

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