Abstract
Meat is an important source of high biological value proteins as well as many vitamins and minerals. In Lebanon, beef meats, including raw minced beef, are among the most consumed of the meat products. However, minced beef meat can also be an important source of foodborne illnesses. This is of a major concern, because food safety in Lebanon suffers from well-documented challenges. Consequently, the prevalence and loads of fecal coliforms and Escherichia coli were quantified to assess the microbiological acceptability of minced beef meat in Lebanon. Additionally, antibiotic resistance phenotypes of the E. coli were determined in response to concerns about the emergence of resistance in food matrices in Lebanon. A total of 50 meat samples and 120 E. coli isolates were analyzed. Results showed that 98% and 76% of meat samples harbored fecal coliforms and E. coli above the microbial acceptance level, respectively. All E. coli were resistant to at least one antibiotic, while 35% of the isolates were multidrug-resistant (MDR). The results suggest that Lebanon needs to (1) update food safety systems to track and reduce the levels of potential contamination in important foods and (2) implement programs to control the proliferation of antimicrobial resistance in food systems.
Highlights
Meat is an integral component of a balanced diet, providing proteins, essential amino acids and various micronutrients such as vitamin B12, niacin, vitamin B6, iron, zinc and phosphorous [1].meat production has increased rapidly over the past 50 years worldwide [2]
Colony forming units (CFU) that matched the diagnostic phenotypes were counted and bacteria densities were determined by averaging the counts from the duplicates
Lebanon by quantifying the prevalence present raw minced samples, while E.incoli was detected in 38 samples and loads of fecal indicators, namely fecal coliforms and
Summary
Meat production has increased rapidly over the past 50 years worldwide [2]. Cattle meat production has more than doubled since the 1960s, increasing from 28 million tons in 1961 to 68 million tons in 2014 [2]. In Lebanon, beef meat is among the most consumed meats [3]. The average consumption of beef meat was 39.63 kg/capita in Lebanon [2] and the mean intake was 47.6 g/day in surveyed consumers in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon [3]. Lebanon produced 47,484 tons of beef meat in 2014 [2]; beef meat in the Lebanese market is mainly imported from Brazil and India [4]
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