Seasonal Bacterial Profiling of Street Vended Panipuri Sold in Jabalpur City of Madhya Pradesh

Background: India is a country where each city boasts its own unique street food and a large percentage of population relishes on these delicacies. The most popular street food in India is panipuri. Aim: The present study undertaken to assess the season-wise bacterial profile of masala pani and mater sold with panipuri in Jabalpur city of Madhya Pradesh, India. Method:Total thirty-six samples of panipuri were aseptically collected and analysed within one hour of procurement. Isolation, enumeration and identification of the bacteria were carried out following the standard procedure. Findings: Result shows that the total viable count of bacteria in masala pani during summer, rainy and winter season varied between 58.6-121.3×105CFU, 97-183×105CFU& 30.6-66.6×105CFUand mater is varied between 48-119.3×105CFU,83.6-130×105CFU& 19.6- 45.6×105CFU respectively. This finding shows that the bacterial contamination in panipuri samples were higher in rainy season followed by summer and winter season. Almost all panipuri samples have high microbial load of pathogenic bacteria such as Enterobacter faecalis, Salmonella sp., Pseudomonas fluorescence, Protease sp., Streptococcus sp., E. coli, Enterobacter aerogenes & Klebsiella pneumoniae. The mean scores of total viable count (CFU) of masala pani and mater sold in Jabalpur city during different season do differ significantly (p≤0.05). Thus, bacterial profile demonstrates that the panipuri sold in Jabalpur city constitute an important potential hazard to human health. The emerging needs like provision of health education to the vendors and enforcing implementation of appropriate hygienic practice should follow the control measure to improve the microbial quality of panipuri.