Souvik Roy^1*, Salangkrita Roy², Sritama Pramanik², Srabonti Chattopadhyay² and Lopamudra Choudhury³

¹Assistant Professor, Post-Graduate and Research Department of Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), 30, Mother Teresa Sarani, Kolkata-700 016, West Bengal, India
²5th Year Integrated M. Sc. (5 Year Integrated) students, Post-Graduate and Re- search Department of Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), 30, Mother Teresa Sarani, Kolkata-700 016, West Bengal, India
³State-Aided College Teacher, Department of Microbiology, Sarsuna College (under Calcutta University), 4/HB/A, Ho-Chi-Minh Sarani, Sarsuna Upanagari, Kolkata – 700061, West Bengal, India

*Corresponding Author: Souvik Roy, Assistant Professor, Post-Graduate and Re- search Department of Biotechnology, St. Xavier’s College (Autonomous), 30, Mother Teresa Sarani, Kolkata-700 016, West Bengal, India.

Received: July 01, 2026; Published: August 13, 2026

Abstract

Coconut water is an electrolyte-rich, nutritious natural beverage that is usually considered sterile within the intact exocarp and mesocarp of green coconuts (Cocos nucifera). This study, as per the best of knowledge, for the first time, provides a comprehensive insight of the pathogen load in coconut water vended from the streets of Kolkata, India, and their antibiogram profile. Fresh coconut water samples were collected from three randomly-chosen, different geographical locations in and around Kolkata (Central Kolkata, and its northern and southern outskirts), and the aliquots obtained from each were refrigerated for 14 days. Both the fresh and refrigerated sub-samples were then subjected to routine microbiological and biochemical analyses for isolation, identification and confirmation of both bacterial and fungal pathogens. The presence of bacterial (both mesophilic and psychrotrophic) and fungal contaminants were observed in both the fresh and refrigerated coconut water aliquots, the number of proliferating pathogenic mesophilic bacteria outnumbering their fungal counterparts. This study also challenged the idea of safe food preservation by refrigeration, as psychrotrophic bacterial contaminants proliferated profusely in the refrigerated samples with an increased pH of 6.9–7.1 (near-neutral), vastly outnumbering their growth in the fresh samples with a pH of 5.3–5.6 (acidic). A significant coliform count was obtained across all samples tested, with Most Probable Number (MPN) indices being ≥1100 in almost all cases, and subsequent tests confirmed fecal coliform contamination with E. coli and their thermotolerant counterparts due to inappropriate hygienic-sanitary conditions. Besides, the presence of notorious foodborne bacteria like Staphylococci, Shigella, Pseudomonas and Bacillus, and fungi like Aspergillus, Rhizopus and Mucor were confirmed in this study, adding much to the public health concern. The antibiotic susceptibility test of the pathogenic bacteria depicted a mammoth degree of multi-drug resistance, with majority exhibiting 100% resistance to even the newer-generation combinatorial drug Amoxicillin–Clavulanic acid. With a super-swift escalation in antibiotic-resistant pathogens worldwide, these antibiogram analyses thus point towards a potential health hazard. All these key findings signify that the safety of consumption of street-vended coconut water in and around the city of Kolkata has been severely compromised, necessitating immediate authorized intervention to address the casual post-harvest extraction and manual handling, besides improper storage and vending by itinerant roadside sellers.

Keywords: Antibiotic Susceptibility Test; Foodborne Pathogens; Fresh and Refrigerated Sub-Samples; Multi-Drug Resistance; Public Health Concern, Street-Vended Coconut Water

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Citation

Citation: Souvik Roy., et al. “Unveiling the Pathogen Load and their Multi Drug Resistance in Street-Vended Coconut Water in Kolkata, India: A Pioneering Insight". Acta Scientific Microbiology 9.9 (2026): 01-22.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2026 Souvik Roy., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.