Um-Jingir is a fermented indigenous Sudanese food product made mainly from cooked grinded pearl millet to which sugar, yogurt, lemon and salt will be added upon serving. It is vended by women and widely consumed by workers in industrial areas in Khartoum State, Sudan. Sixty samples of Um-Jingir were randomly collected from vending women near industrial areas in Khartoum State over a period of three months from 21st of May to 5th of September 2007. The study was focused on determining the bacteriological quality and safety of street vended Um-Jingir. Microbial analysis resulted in aerobic plate counts from 3 ×10
4 to 3.5×10
7 colony forming unit (cfu)/ml, while MacConkey’s agar counts ranged from 2×10
2 to 2.7 ×10
3 cfu/ml and mannitol salt agar growth of about 2×10
2 to 1.6×10
3 cfu/ ml. Total coliforms ranged from 3 to 1400 MPN/100 ml.
Bacillus
spp.,
Staphylococcus aureus
,
Escherichia coli
and
Salmonella
spp. were detected in 70, 68.3, 6.6, and 5% of samples, respectively.
Pseudomonas
spp. and several
Enterobacteriaceae
species were isolated including
Proteus
spp.,
Klebsiella
spp.,
Hafnia
spp. and
Escherichia
spp. The minimum pH of Um-Jingir samples was 3.4, whereas the highest pH was 6.7.Alteration of the classic formula by omitting yoghurt and replacing it with citric acid showed that the nutritional value of Um-Jingir could be reduced to meet the low price requirements. Observation of Um-Jingir vending places showed that they were crowded, unclean and the sanitary levels were low. In spite of the high nutritional value of this product and its importance for low income consumers, the established results in addition to close observation of Um-Jingir marketing conditions indicated that consumption of street vended Um-Jingir might have negative effects on public health. Therefore, vending this type of food requires more attention from health authorities, better educational programmes for vendors and improvements of preparation and handling environment.