Microbiological evaluation of locally produced ice cream in Baquba city. Iraq

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the bacteriological quality of ice cream made locally and seller’s hands in different sites of Baquba city. The samples include 70 randomly collected ice cream and 25 sample taken from seller’s hands. All samples were free from salmonella and shigella also the absence of mold and yeast was concluded. The distribution of isolated bacteria from ice cream samples was as follow: %47, %34, %28, %26, %9 for Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter aerogenes, Streptococcus faecalis and Bacillus cereus while in seller’s hands were as %44, %24, %24, %24, %20, %8, %8 for the respectively Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus spp., Streptococcus faecalis, Citrobacter spp. and Enertobacter aerogenes. Generally the pathogenic bacteria as Escherichia coli isolated in highest number in both ice cream and seller’s hands The range of bacterial total count for ice cream samples was between 3.3 × 105 and 5.2 × 105 cfu/g. The present study showed that the microbiological quality of the ice cream samples not fit the standard value. The results of this study encourage the necessity of providing hygienic conditions in the process, preparing, package and marketing to minimize the contamination of such a most consumed dairy product like ice cream.