Bacterial profiling of powdered infant formula retailed in Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria

Olubukola Blessing  Oyetibo; Olufunke Bolatito  Shittu; Adebukunola Mobolaji  Omemu

Olubukola Blessing Oyetibo Department of Microbiology, College of Bioscience, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, 110212 Nigeria
Olufunke Bolatito Shittu Department of Microbiology, College of Bioscience, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, 110212 Nigeria 2Department of Hos
Adebukunola Mobolaji Omemu Department of Hospitality and Tourism, College of Food Science and Human Ecology, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Keywords: Bacteria; taxonomy; powdered infant formula; food safety; infant weaning

Abstract

Powdered Infant Formula (PIF) is a non-sterile environment but erroneously adjudged sterile in uninformed

populations where food safety is scarcely regarded. PIF becomes a potential medium for certain categories of

bacteria that may pose health hazards to weaning deprived infants as alternative to breast feeding. In this

study, bacteria taxonomy of 172 different infant formulas made up of 38 brands were determined, using

culture independent approach by targeting the V1-V3 regions of 16S rRNA genes. A total of 60,876 sequence

reads were obtained, comprising 2 dominant phyla: Firmicutes (85.2%) and Proteobacteria (14.8%). The

dominant classes of the two phyla include Bacilli (84%) and Gammaproteobacteria (14.5%), which majorly

comprised Bacillus (81.7%) and Enterobacter (12.8%) genera. Approximately 97% of the sequence reads

comprised 84 species, which include Bacillus amyloliquefaciens group (75.9%), Enterobacter asburiae group (6.9%)

and Enterobacter cloacae group (5.6%) as the dominant species. However, some potential pathogens including Cronobacter sakazakii, Klebsiella pneumonia, Salmonella enterica, and Alcaligenes faecalis were found in low abundance in the PIF, indicating that some of the PIFs may be unsafe for infant weaning. Therefore, the PIF available to infants in Lagos metropolis are not sterile as erroneously thought, containing low diversity of bacteria that

makes safety of the formulas questionable.