Microbiological Assessment of Suya (Sliced Roasted Beef) in Ado-Ekiti Metropolis, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Suya is a spicy, traditional stick meat product that is commonly produced by the Hausas in Northern Nigeria from beef [1]. Where rearing of cattle are an important pre occupation and major source of livelihood for the people [2]. This leads to the production of ready -to eat beef products such as suya, kilishi, balangu and kundi. suya is however the most popular as its consumption has extended to other part of the country [3]. Suya is a popular, traditionally processed, ready to eat Nigerian meat product, which may be served or sold along the streets, in club houses, at picnics, parties, restaurants and within institutions [4]. It is a mass consumer fast food. Its preparation and sales along the streets are usually not done under strict hygienic condition because they are still done locally with crude tools. Traditionally, processed meat products were produced and consumed in different countries throughout the world [5]. Meat is a highly perishable food product, just like milk as described by Falegan and Oluwaniyi [6], which unless correctly stored, processed, packaged and distributed may spoil quickly and become hazardous to consumers due to microbial growth [6]. Potential for microbial contamination is influenced by the condition prior to slaughter, abattoir practices, extent of handling and subsequent storage conditions [7]. All raw meats can have some level of microbial contamination present and cannot be expected to be otherwise without further processing [8]. Depending on the species and whether they are present, pathogen such as Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp. and E. coli 0157:H7 can grow and cause illness by the ingestion of the bacterial cells themselves or from toxins that they produce. The presence of pathogens in the food supply in low numbers is undesirable and is considered a major cause of gastrointestinal disease world-wide [9]. Within the meat industry, assurance of meat safety and quality are of paramount importance. As the industry develops new technologies to produce higher quality and diverse meat products for increasingly competitive markets, systems must be designed to allow safeguards to be implemented into processing procedures. Traditional approaches to meat safety and quality have relied heavily on regulatory inspection and sampling regimes. However, these systems cannot guarantee total consumer protection unless 100% inspection and sampling are employed. In the meat industry, this level of inspection is impractical for various economic and logistic reasons [10]. Effective intervention to reduce contamination of beef begins with determining potential sources of contamination. Tissues under the hide of healthy cattle are usually sterile [11]; consequently, tissues become contaminated during the slaughtering process. Sources of Meat contamination during slaughter maybe classified as those associated with the animal, processing practices, Abattoir facilities and employees. The extent to which Potential contamination sources become hazardous to public health depends on management and unpredictable events or factors. Even in the best managed slaughter facilities, Contamination may still occur. Fortunately, most bacterial Colonies which have been isolated from beef have been non-pathogenic, although human pathogens such as Salmonella, Campylobacter and Listeria have been isolated [12]. Because of the high rate of consumption of suya, there is a need for microbiological analysis of the suya products in other to evaluate the microbial contamination of the samples and even to avoid infection from it consumption, although meat from freshly slaughtered, healthy animals is supposed to Volume 2 Issue 3 2017