Presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in coliform-free sachet drinking water in Ghana Justin Stoler a, b, * , Hawa Ahmed c, 1 , Lady Asantewa Frimpong c, 1 , Mohammed Bello c, 1 a Department of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA b Department of Public Health Sciences, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA c Environmental Health & Biology Division, Water Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Accra, Ghana article info Article history: Received 12 September 2014 Received in revised form 25 January 2015 Accepted 3 February 2015 Available online 11 March 2015 Keywords: Drinking water Ghana Pseudomonas Sachet water West Africa abstract Sachet water is now an important source of drinking water security in West Africa, and the sachet in- dustry continues to mature as market share increasingly shifts from cottage industry players to high- volume corporate producers. Modern sachet production lines are prone to the development of bio- films, and traditional microbiological indicators of fecal water contamination may not capture all the potential risks to human health in such a widely-consumed product. This study tested a sample of 80 sachets purchased along two commercial transects in low-income neighborhoods of Accra, Ghana, for total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC), Escherichia coli (EC), total heterotrophic bacteria (THB), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA), and examined the relationships between these indicators and brand reputation. Just 5% of samples tested positive for TC, and none tested positive for FC and EC, yet 41% of samples tested positive for PA. After controlling for one popular brand, a negative brand reputation was associated with both THB presence (P ¼ 0.015) and the number of samples with THB > 500 CFU/mL (P ¼ 0.038), but PA was found in brands of both positive and negative reputations, and was only correlated with THB counts. The emergence of PA presents an opportunity for the re-evaluation of packaged water quality standards in a rapidly-globalizing, urban environment. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction West African nations continue to lag in their progress toward Millennium Development Goals Target 7C, which aimed to halve the proportion of the global population without sustainable access to safe drinking water between 1990 and 2015 (WHO/UNICEF, 2012a). As the percentage of urban residents with piped water access continues its decline in the region (WHO/UNICEF, 2011), sachet water has emerged as a significant private sector innovation to fill West African gaps in urban household drinking water secu- rity, particularly among the urban poor (Stoler, 2012). The 2010 Ghana Census underscores this trend: 28% of all residents in the Accra Metropolitan Area (AMA) reported using sachet water as their primary household drinking water source (Ghana Statistical Service, 2012), a dramatic increase from levels of 0% (1998) and 6.4% (2003) in low-income AMA clusters from the first two Ghana Demographic and Health Surveys (Stoler, Weeks, & Fink, 2012). The quality of sachet water sold in West African nations has been a subject of inquiry for over a decade. The early literature, while often limited by small sample sizes and other design flaws (Stoler, Weeks, et al., 2012), has consistently reported poor bacte- riological quality in Ghana (Addo, Mensah, Bekoe, Bonsu, & Akyeh, 2009; Ampofo, Andoh, Tetteh, & Bello, 2007; Dodoo, Quagraine, Okai-Sam, Kambo, & Headley, 2006; Kwakye-Nuako, Borketey, Mensah-Attipoe, Asmah, & Ayeh-Kumi, 2007; Obiri-Danso, Okore- Hanson, & Jones, 2003; Osei, Newman, Mingle, Ayeh-Kumi, & Kwasi, 2013; Oyelude & Ahenkorah, 2012), though the most recent of these studies reflect data collected in 2008 (Oyelude & Ahenkorah, 2012) and 2010e2011 (Osei et al., 2013). The sachet water industry has experienced rapid transformation over the last 5 years as large corporate manufacturers with economies of scale have gradually replaced small cottage industry businesses, and a survey conducted in Greater Accra in June 2013 found that sachets * Corresponding author. Department of Geography and Regional Studies, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami, 1300 Campo Sano Avenue, Coral Gables, FL 33146-4401, USA. Tel.: þ1 305 284 6692. E-mail addresses: stoler@miami.edu (J. Stoler), hawaahmed360@yahoo.com (H. Ahmed), asantewa84@yahoo.co.uk (L. Asantewa Frimpong), yarbello@yahoo. com (M. Bello). 1 CSIR Water Research Institute, Environmental Health & Biology Division, P.O. Box AH 38, Accra, Ghana. Tel.: þ233 302 779514. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Control journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodcont http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2015.02.038 0956-7135/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Food Control 55 (2015) 242e247