The qualitative assessment of putative bacterial pathogens on the surfaces of canned drinks sold in Benin metropolis was evaluated in this study. Standard bacteriological culture-based techniques employing the use of selective and differential media (Oxoid) such as Bacillus cereus agar, mannitol Salt agar, Pseudomonas cetrimide agar, bile esculin agar and MacConkey agar were used for isolation and identification of bacteria from swabbed surfaces of canned drinks. Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion technique was used for antibacterial susceptibility testing. The multiple antibiotic resistance (MAR) index was deduced from the antibiogram characterization to evaluate the public health importance of the bacterial isolates. Refrigerated samples had 25% contamination while 75% were not contaminated and about 15.39% contamination was observed for non-refrigerated samples (stored in crates or cartons) compared to the counterpart 84.61%. The bacterial species include Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Bacillus sp. and Enterococcus sp. The bacteria were found to be sensitive to ciprofloxacin (92.5%) and gentamicin (90.1%) and least susceptible to cefixime (23.1%) and vancomycin (26.4%). They were found to be multi-resistant because they have an MAR index above the tolerable permissible limit (0.2) for common antibiotics usually used for their eradication. It is important to ensure that the surfaces of canned drinks must be rinsed with water before consumption.
