Microbial assessment on cutting boards and cleanliness levels of restaurants with long operating hours around Klang Valley, Malaysia

Abstract

Cutting boards used for ready-to-eat (RTE) foods in most restaurants are often contaminated with bacteria, leading to foodborne illnesses. The present work aimed to detect the contamination of aerobic bacteria, coliform, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., and Staphylococcus aureus on cutting boards, and to evaluate the levels of cleanliness of long-hours restaurants around Klang Valley, Malaysia. The examination of bacterial contamination was conducted by swabbing cutting boards from 33 restaurants. The findings showed that the numbers of aerobic bacteria were within the range of 3.95 to 7.07 log10 CFU/cm2, namely coliform (< 1.00 to 5.58 log10 CFU/cm2), E. coli (< 1.00 log10 CFU/cm2), S. aureus (< 1.00 to 2.90 log10 CFU/cm2), and Salmonella spp. They were detected from 12% (n = 4/33) of cutting boards. At the same time, the levels of restaurants’ cleanliness were A at 3% (n = 1/33), and both B and C at 48.5% (n = 16/33). There was no significant (p > 0.05) association between the contamination of coliform (χ2 = 1.096), Salmonella spp. (χ2 = 0.004), and S. aureus (χ2 = 0.437) with the levels of restaurants’ cleanliness. Therefore, the present work concluded that the contamination of bacteria on the cutting boards was not affected by the levels of cleanliness based on swabbing food contact surfaces to evaluate the microbial status.