Microbial contamination of enteral feeds.

The microbiological quality of 4 feed ingredients and 29 hospital-prepared non-sterile enteral feeds were determined. All 4 feed ingredients yielded no growth of micro-organisms, but all 29 enteral feeds had aerobic viable counts exceeding 10(5) organisms g-1 with a high coliform count in each feed. Both the aerobic palte count and the coliform count exceeded numerical limits for micro-organisms in enteral feeds. Sources of contamination were the feed containers and the liquidizer which were inadequately disinfected.