Bacterial Contamination of the Hands of Food Handlers: Evidence from Jordanian Diary Industries

Abstract

This study investigates the bacterial contamination of the hands of food handlers in the dairy products factories in Jordan. Duplicates of 90 swab stick samples were taken from food handlers in six factories and were spread at the surface of specific media; the violet red bile agar was used to isolate Escherichia coli and Baird-Parker agar was used to isolate Staphylococcus aureus. Thereafter, the bacterial isolates were purified and pre- identification tests were performed. The identification of isolates was carried out using polymerase chain reaction. The results revealed that Escherichia coli has the occurrence of (24/372, 6.5%) and Staphylococcus aureus has the occurrence of (22/385, 5.7%) in all six factories. The highest count of Escherichia coli in a certain factory was 8, while the lowest count of it was 1. Same maximum and minimum counts were found for Staphylococcus aureus. Moreover, randomly selected samples of the final product were tested to the existence of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus and they were found free of both bacteria. These findings indicate good hygiene conditions in the Jordanian factories of dairy products. Thus, the few bacterial counts found on the hands of food handlers will be killed during the pasteurization process and the final product will be safe to eat. Introduction