Factors contributing to bacterial diversity and load in Bulawayo restaurants, Zimbabwe

Abstract

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.