Studies on Bacterial Contaminants on the Bottle Orifice of Opened Non- Alcoholic Drinks In Mkar-Gboko, Benue State

Drinking directly from the orifice of canned and or bottled drinks is a common health-risk practice. The aim of this work was to isolate and identify bacterial contaminants from the orifice of opened soft drink bottles The study was conducted at University of Mkar, Mkar, Gboko Local Government of Benue State. Fifty (50) samples were bought from shops around University of Mkar, Mkar and in the University cafeteria. Media preparation, inoculation and culture were carried out following standard practices. Morphologically different colonies were sub-cultured. Characterization and identification were carried out using cultural morphology variation, Gram’s reaction and biochemical tests. Fanta bottle orifices had the highest bacteria load (2.87 x 10 3 cfu/ml) followed by those of Pepsi orifices (2.83 x 10 3 cfu/ml) and Coke (2.39 x 10 3 cfu/ml). Bacterial load in Mountain Dew and Sprite orifices were 2.09 x 10 3 and 1.86 x 10 3 respectively. Three groups of bacteria were identified based on their reactions to the biochemical tests such as the Gram staining, coagulase test, catalase test, sugar utilization and hydrogen sulphide production. They were: Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus spp and Enterococcus spp. Staphylococcus aureus had the highest percentage occurrence (50%) in Pepsi and Mountain dew samples. Bacillus spp had the highest percentage occurrence (40%) in Pepsi, Coke and Fanta samples. Enterococcus spp had the highest percentage occurrence (60%) in Sprite. Statistically, this difference was not significant (χ 2 = 0.08, P=0.961, P>0.05). No bottle orifice of any brand was associated with a particular bacterial type among the three identified species. The identified bacteria have clinical implications and they are of public health concern. This calls for appropriate measure to monitor and decontaminate orifice of soft drinks for the safety of consumers.