eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Food Science and Technology 2333-4835 2020-11-13 8 6 242 249 10.12691/ajfst-8-6-3 AJFST2020863 article Binta Sambo Abdullahi bintsambo93@yahoo.com 1 Sakina Bello Maiha 1 Fatimah Dauda Kida 1 Department of Food Technology Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna, Nigeria The aim of this research was to examine bacteriological quality of some ready-to-eat foods that were served in some food centres in Zaria. Samples of jollof rice, pounded yam and melon seed soup were collected from three categories of food service centres and enumerated on selective media for the isolation of Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. Analysis of variance of the mean counts of the organisms from the three categories of food service centres were not significantly different (p > 0.05). However, mean counts ranging from 5.76 to 7.91 log10 cfu/g for B. cereus and 5.99 to 7.91 log10 cfu/g for S. aureus recovered from the foods were above the standard acceptable limits of less than 5.0 log10 cfu/g for B. cereus and less than 4.0 log10 cfu/g for S. aureus. Out of the 108 food and swab samples examined, 82 (75.9%) were contaminated with S. aureus, 68 (62.9%) with coliforms and 57 (52.7%) with B. cereus. E. coli was isolated from pounded yam and melon seed soup in bukateria and cafeteria. The antibiotic-sensitivity test of the bacteria revealed that most of the bacteria were resistant to the common antibiotics used in the treatment of infections. http://pubs.sciepub.com/ajfst/8/6/3/ajfst-8-6-3.pdf Jollof rice pounded yam melon seed soup Bacillus cereus Escherichia coli Staphylococcus aureus