Assessment of some food poisoning bacteria in ready-to-eat meals

Abstract

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords A total of 100 random of ready to eat Shish tawook, Chicken fajitas, Beef fajitas and Hotdog (25 of each) were collected from different restaurants in Menoufia governorate. The obtained results revealed that the mean values of aerobic plate count (cfu/g)were1.37×10 6 ±1.74×10 6 in Shish tawook, 3.24×10 6 ±3.69×10 6 in Chicken fajitas, 1.48×10 5 ±1.92×10 5 in Beef fajitas and 1.94×10 5 ± 2.65×10 5 in Hotdog. The mean values of coliform count (cfu/g) were 4.54×10 4 ±8.66×10 4 , 9.33×10 4 ±1.49×10 5 , 2.42×10 4 ±1.82×10 4 and 1.63×10 4 ±2.64×10 4 in Shish tawook, Chicken fajitas, Beef fajitas and Hotdog, respectively. Also, these values of Staph aureus count (cfu/g) were 6.33×10 3 ±7.06×10 3 , 1.60×10 4 ±1.13×10 4 , 1.91×10 4 ±1.28×10 4 and 1.18×10 4 ±8.91×10 3 in the same products. The highest incidences of Staph aureus, E.coli and Bacillus cereus were 40%, 32% and 28%in Chicken fajitas respectively. The incidences of Clostridium perfringens were higher in Shish tawook (24%) and chicken fajitas (24%). In findings of multiplex PCR of Bacillus cereus showed that the nhe (non-hemolytic enterotoxin) and CytK (cytotoxin K)genes were positive for all isolated strains yielded a consistent fragment at 766 bp and 421bp, respectively. Bacillus cereus Clostridium perfrienges E. coli Fast food Staph. aureus