Mohamud Ahmed Farah^1,, Hassan Mohamed Abdi^{1, 2}, Abdillahi Mohamed Othman³, Ahmed Hussein Essa³

The study was conducted to examine the microbial quality of two dried foods: chips and biscuits and UHT milk, which are very common among children and adults. Moreover, people from all age groups like and consume it. Chips, biscuits, and UHT milk are free from coliforms and E. coli due to proper handling during production. In the current study, forty samples were tested for microbiological quality analysis. Fifteen samples of three UHT milk brands, five samples from each brand, were analyzed to study the presence of coliforms and E. coli. No coliforms or E. coli were detected in all 15 UHT milk samples. Of the samples studied, all fifteen biscuit samples from three different brands were found not to be contaminated with coliforms and E. coli. All ten chip samples from the two brands were free from coliforms and E. coli. In conclusion, it can be said that either imported or locally manufactured UHT milk samples, chips, and biscuits collected from different shops, stores, and supermarkets are of high quality. One of the main findings of this analysis of UHT milk and chips was that one of the local industries applied good manufacturing practices, which made their product of high quality and similar to the imported UHT milk and chip samples. The government and relevant stakeholders are recommended to know the significance of food safety issues to avoid any possible foodborne diseases.

TCC-Total Coliform Count, TEC-Total Escherichia coli Count, UHT- Ultra High Temperature, Sterilization, chromogenic coliform agar, chips, biscuits