Microbiological quality of complementary foods and its association with diarrhoeal morbidity and nutritional status of Bangladeshi children

Background/objectives:To examine the bacteriological quality of complementary foods (CF) and to correlate the results with diarrhoeal morbidity and nutritional status of Bangladeshi children aged 624 months.Subjects/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 (P0.05). 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.

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