Millions of people worldwide depend on ready-to-eat foods (RTEFs) vended on the streets daily, for a wide variety of food choices that are relatively cheap and easily accessible. Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranean (L.) Verdc.) Pudding ‘Okpa’ is a RTEF gaining enormous popularity in Nigeria, thus the need to investigate its microbiological qualities. A total of 30 samples were purchased from six different vendors along the popular ‘Sango under-bridge’ in Ota and were analyzed for total aerobic plate count, coliform count, fungal count and for specific bacterial and fungal pathogens. The mean total aerobic plate count ranged from 4.06 x 104 to 5.38 x105 cfu/g, mean coliform count ranged from <10 to 1.44 x 102 cfu/g and mean fungal count was 4.54 x 102 to 5.61 x 104 cfu/g. Five different bacteria and three fungi species were identified based on morphological and biochemical tests as major contaminants. These include: Bacillus, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas, Mucor, Aspergillus and Rhizopus. The presence of E. coli an indicator organism of faecal contamination, and the relatively high coliform count can be an indication of poor hygiene and sanitation standards post processing or inadequate heat treatment during the preparation of these products. The application of good manufacturing practices (GMP), effective hazard analysis critical control point (HACCP) evaluation and adequate supervision and implementation of food safety practices and regular education of food handlers on food quality standards is advanced to improve this product and other RTEFs
