Prevalence of Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria in Ready to eat Food Sold by Street Vendors in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a vibrant street food culture, with easily available ready-to-eat (RTE) foods. In this study, a total of 221 isolates were obtained from 141 Bangladeshi RTE food samples, such as fried, non-fried, and cooked foods; egg-, milk-, cereal-, and cream-based foods; pickles/achar; fruit; and RTE leaves, through culture on trypticase soy (for aerobic plate count), mannitol salt (MS for Staphylococcaceae), deoxycholate-hydrogen sulfide-lactose (DHL, for Enterobacteriaceae), and NaCl glycine Kim Goepfert agar (NGKG, for Bacillus cereus-like bacteria) agar plates. The aerobic plate counts ranged from undetectable to 8.5 log CFU/g. After enrichment with peptone water, contaminated bacteria detected on DHL, MS, and NGKG agar plates, from 77, 110, and 77 samples, respectively. Twenty out of 111 isolates on DHL agar, and 17 of 32 isolates on NGKG agar clearly showed resistance against three or more drugs. Through 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing analysis, six selected isolates from DHL agar were identified as Pseudomonas nitroreducens, Citrobacter braakii, Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp. pneumoniae, and Serratia marcescens. One selected isolate from NGKG agar was identified as Bacillus cereus-like bacteria. The results suggest that additional safety measures and regulations are necessary to ensure the quality and safety of the RTE foods in Bangladesh.