الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Contaminated food has been reported to be responsible for numerous foodborne diseases all around the world. Bacterial contaminants have been shown to be present in a wide variety of food products, especially in raw meat. For this reason, their isolation and detection in meat is crucial for the safety of public health. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the bacteriological quality of imported chilled meat traded in Port-Said markets, a total of 64 random samples of imported chilled beef meats represented by 28 imported chilled meat samples from lots arrived at Port-Said port (un-marketed) and 36 imported chilled beef meat samples collected from retailed markets (marketed) at Port-Said governorate. These samples were analyzed for their total aerobic count, total enterobacteriaceae count, total coliforms count, E. coli, total staphylococcus and S. aureus count and salmonellae according to standard methods. The total bacterial count recorded an average of 10.73x104 and 2.5x106 in unmarketed and marketed chilled meat; respectively. The results showed that 18 out of 64 meat samples were positive for enterobacteriaceae and 6 samples out of them were unaccepted for human consumption. Also 16 out of 64 meat samples were positive for coliforms, 7 samples out of them were heavily contaminated and they were unaccepted. The incidence of E. coli was in 6 samples from the examined chilled samples, and the 6 were un accepted. For staphylococcus there were 24 positive samples and 13 out of them where unaccepted for consumption. And 2 out of 64 meat samples were positive for salmonella and the 2 samples were unaccepted. The bacteriological quality of imported chilled meat was associated with handling, transportation and marketing in unhygienic conditions. It was concluded that the food industry and regulatory authorities concerning food safety should take better control measures to improve food hygiene and prevent the contamination of food to maintain public health status and also control the rate of incidence of foodborne diseases. |