Assessment of Microbial Quality of seasoning Salad in Jeddah city

Abstract

This research was conducted to follow up the microbial contamination samples of some seasoning salad samples collected twice monthly for three months from twelve locations representing six districts in Jeddah. It was found that the counts of microbial groups (total viable bacteria, total coliform, fecal coliform, Salmonella and Staphylococcus) in the sample taken at rush hours were higher than those collected at calm time of selling. Also the highest means of all studied microbial groups were found in the samples taken from traditional locations at calm time of selling. The highest mean of total viable bacterial count (169600 cfu/gm) was found in the samples of Mashrafa District in the first sampling month. Whereas, the highest means of total coliform group (80866 cfu/gm) and fecal coliform group (28633 cfu/gm) were found in the samples taken from traditional locations in Guesa at the first sampling month and in Al-Rwaubi district at the second sampling month, respectively. On the other hand, Samples' means of from traditional locations taken from Al-Rehab district at the third month of sampling (35500 cfu/gm) and from the same district at the second sampling month (25000 cfu/gm) represented Salmonella and staphylococcus groups, respectively. It is recommended to take care about purchasing of ready to eat food and the direct eating or cold preservation until using to avoid food infection or poisoning.