Assessment of the Microbial Quality of Industrial Ready-to-Eat Salads Containing Meat Products

Abstract

Ready-to-eat foods are not usually treated sufficiently to eliminate the existing pathogenic bacteria in them before consumption; therefore, bacterial contamination in these foods requires due consideration. This study aims to detect Salmonella and Escherichia coli contamination and total microbial count in ready-to-eat salad samples containing meat products in Tehran in 2018. The microbial analysis of 136 samples including Olivier salad, Macaroni salad, and Sausage salad, collected by simple randomized sampling method from chain-stores, grocery and cooperative stores, was done according to the ISO international standards. Salmonella was not detected in any of the samples, and only 0.7% of the samples were contaminated with E. coli. The total number of microorganisms in 89.6% of the Olivier salad samples, 61.4% of the Macaroni salad samples and 97.7% of the Sausage salad samples was within the permitted limits of the Iranian National Standard. The average total number of microbes in the Olivier salad, Macaroni salad, and Sausage salad samples was obtained as 4.84, 4.23, and 5.34 log CFU/g, respectively. This study confirms the relatively satisfactory microbiological quality of ready-to-eat salads containing meat products in Tehran,Iran.