International Science Community Association International Research Journal of Biological Sciences 2278-3202 8 10 2019 10 10 Microbial profile and proximate composition of commonly used food thicker 15 23 EN Pradeep Kumar 1 Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Arti Choudhary 2 Transport Planning and Environment Division, CSIR-Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi, India Rajendra Prasad 3 Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India Dileep Kumar Gupta 4 Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, India Meenakshi Amarawat 5 Department of Botany, Bhupal Noble′s University Udaipur, India Gaurav Shukla 6 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India Abhay Kumar Singh 7 Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India Meenakshi Amarawat 1 Department of Botany, Bhupal Noble′s University Udaipur 313001, India Pradeep Kumar 2 Department of Physics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University Varanasi 221005, India M.S. Rathore 3 Department of Botany, Bhupal Noble′s University Udaipur 313001, India Omorodion Nnenna 1 Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, P.M.B 5323, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigrria Nwala Chinyere 2 Department of Microbiology, University of Port Harcourt, P.M.B 5323, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigrria > Research Paper 2019 4 16 2019 10 10 The study evaluated the nutritional and microbial profile of five food condiments Brachytegiaurycoma (Achi), Detariummirocapum (ofor), Mucunasloani (ukpo), Cocoyam (Ede) and starch used as food thickening agents bought from different markets. The total bacteria counts of the food thickening agent ranged from 4.0x 106 to 2.12 x108cfu/g. However Achi had the highest bacteria count. The Staphylococcus counts of the food thickening agent ranged from 1.5 x105 to 1.08 x106,.cfu/g. The Salmonella shigella counts ranged from 3.0x 104 to 6.5 x 105, cfu/g, no visible growth was observed for Starch and Cocoyam, but shigella was present in Ukpo, Fungal counts ranged from 2.0x106 to 5.4x107cfu/g. These values when compared to the standards for food condiments which is 103 & Copyright@ International Science Community Association 706;105 is unsatisfactory. Microorganism isolated were Shigella(5%) Escherichia coli (20%) Staphylococcus spp(29%) Proteus spp (10%) Klebsiellaspp (18%) and Bacillusspp (18%). Staphylococcus spp had the highest frequency of occurrence due to its present on the skin hands and mucous membrane. The presence of these organism indicates poor sanitary practices during the production process however in order to improve the quality of these food thickening agents good sanitary practices must be adopted especially by the market sellers.