Screening and isolation of microbial contaminants from carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks of Delhi

Foodborne pathogens are a global public health problem, their abundance in the various range of foods is
posing a great danger of their spread among communities. Soft drinks are gaining popularity day by day
because of various flavours retailed all over the world. This investigation was carried out so as to analyse
the microbial load in carbonated and non-carbonated drinks available in the local market of Delhi. Total
plate count method was performed with the different samples, among them only Banta sample showed a
bacterial load of 1.7 x 103 Cfu/ml. Cold drinks were further analysed for the presence of enteric bacteria,
Staphylococcus aureus. Presence of food associated microbes is either air-borne or water-borne which may
invade into the drinks. Variety of microbial contaminants can be eliminated from the drinks by maintaining
proper plant sanitation processing and storage.