Bacteriological quality guides in local and imported beef and their relation to public health

Abstract

Contamination of meat products are thought to be the most significant key sources of serious diseases, especially foodborne diseases that spreading all over the world. A total of 100 random samples of chilled local and frozen imported beef (50 of each) were collected from local super markets and retail shops from Cairo governorate for evaluation of their quality from bacteriological point of view . Aerobic plate count (cfu/g )in the local samples were between 1.1×106 and 4.4 ×107 with an average of 4.1×107± 0.02×106 while , in frozen imported were ranged between 2.6×107 to 5.3 ×108 with an average of 2.8×107± 0.03 ×107 . Moreover, Coliform count (cfu/g ) in local samples were ranged from 1×103 to 1.2×104 with average of 4.2x103 ± 0.03×103 , while in imported samples were between 6×102 and 11.0×103 with average of 7.1x103 ± 0.02×103 . Eschericia coli were detected in 4% of chilled samples and 2% of frozen samples. Salmonella spp. has been detected in 4% of local samples while all frozen samples were free. From the overall results, we can conclude that both chilled local and frozen imported meat are considered as a significant source of bacteriological public health hazard and need a special control attention.