Abstract
The present work has been undertaken to report the microbiological quality of fresh fruit juices available from street vendors in Karachi. Altogether nine (9) types of fresh fruit juices were analyzed for total viable count (TVC), total coliform (TCC), total fecal coliform count (TFC). The highest bacterial load (1.2x109 cfu/ml) for fresh fruit juice sample was found in banana and the lowest load was (1.77x104 cfu/mL) found in a lemon juice. All samples of fruit juices showed the presence of coliform and fecal coliform ranging from 7 to ≥2400 MPN/100mL. Five (5) bacterial isolates were identified as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Streptococci sp., Salmonella sp. Fungal isolates were identified as Aspergillus spp., Rhizopus sp., Penicillium sp. and Mucor sp. The highest fungal load was found in banana, apple and watermelon and lowest in orange juice.
