Abstract
The objective of this study was to determine the physicochemical and microbiological characteristics of fermented camel sucuks and their hygienic status. In order to determine the hygienic status of sucuks, the study investigated the presence of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes, and carried out counts of Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus. Analyses were performed on 40 sucuks collected from different production and retail outlets in the Aydın province of Turkey. The physicochemical characteristics of the samples were generally within legal limits (except for the pH results). S. aureus and B. cereus were detected in 9 (22.5%) and 24 (60%) of sucuks, respectively. The counts of B. cereus in 9 sucuks and S. aureus in 5 sucuks were found to have exceeded the acceptable limits. E. coli counts were below the detection limit in all sucuks. Salmonella spp. and L. monocytogenes were not detected in any of the sucuks. The pH was negatively correlated with the counts of lactic acid bacteria and positively correlated with the pathogenic bacteria counts. The fat content had a significant effect on TBARS, cholesterol, energy and color values. Study results demonstrated that some sucuks were of insufficient hygienic quality and may have posed a hazard to consumer health.
Highlights
Meat and meat products are defined as safe when they are suitable for consumption in terms of physical, chemical and microbiological properties
Bacteria are the main reason for reported foodborne infections or intoxication cases worldwide, and the most prevalent reasons for these types of foodborne diseases are Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus, Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium botulinum, Clostridium perfringens and Escherichia coli (Ducic et al, 2016; Rajkovic et al, 2020)
The lower lactic acid bacteria (LAB) counts were determined in this study according to the results found by Papadima et al (1999) and Ambrosiadis et al (2004)
Summary
Meat and meat products are defined as safe when they are suitable for consumption in terms of physical, chemical and microbiological properties. Since meat contains sufficient levels of nutrient components necessary for the growth of microorganisms, many pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms grow in the meat if hygienic processing techniques are not applied. Foodborne infections or intoxications are diseases resulting from the ingestion of foods containing pathogenic microorganisms, or toxins produced by microorganisms (Rajkovic et al, 2020). The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that unsafe foods containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances cause more than 200 diseases. Field studies on food safety are performed in order to evaluate the hygienic quality and physicochemical characteristics of food products. As a result of these studies, many people are informed about the physicochemical characteristics, microbiological quality and hygienic status of meat products consumed by purchasing from retail markets, small-scale manufacturers and fast-food restaurants
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