Microbiological quality of complementary foods and its association with diarrhoeal morbidity and nutritional status of Bangladeshi children.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the bacteriological quality of complementary foods (CF) and to correlate the results with diarrhoeal morbidity and nutritional status of Bangladeshi children aged 6-24 months.


METHODS
A total of 212 CF samples were tested, of which 72 were collected immediately before the first time of feeding (≤ 1 h of food preparation) and 140 were collected at second/third time of feeding from 140 households located in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. Anthropometry, food frequency data and demographic information of the children were collected.


RESULTS
Of the first time feeding samples, 3% from each of urban and rural areas were found to be contaminated with faecal coliforms (FC) at ≥ 100 CFU/g. E. coli was isolated from 11% and 6% of samples, and B. cereus from 8% and 6% of samples from urban and rural areas, respectively. In contrast, 33% of the second/third time feeding samples from urban areas and 19% from rural areas were contaminated with FC at ≥ 100 CFU/g (P<0.05). E. coli was isolated from 40% and 39% of samples, and B. cereus from 33% and 26% of samples from urban and rural areas, respectively. Significantly high numbers of wasted rural children had CF with a high aerobic plate count, which was also significantly associated with diarrhoeal morbidity in children.


CONCLUSIONS
Around 40% of CF samples were contaminated with E. coli, which was mainly attributable to food preparation practices. Consumption of contaminated CF appeared to be associated with a higher frequency of diarrhoea and malnutrition in children.
Food Safety Research Group, Centre for Nutrition and Food Security, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh. maislam@icddrb.org
M A
MA
Islam
T
T
Ahmed
A S G
AS
Faruque
S
S
Rahman
S K
SK
Das
D
D
Ahmed
V
V
Fattori
R
R
Clarke
H P
HP
Endtz
A
A
Cravioto
D001409:Bacillus cereus; D001419:Bacteria; D058491:Bacterial Load; D001459:Bangladesh; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000382:microbiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005260:Female; D005511:Food Handling / Q000592:standards; D005516:Food Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007227:Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000382:microbiology*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D012424:Rural Population; D014505:Urban Population; D019282:Wasting Syndrome / Q000382:microbiology*