Prevalence of Enteric Pathogens in the Prepackaged Salads in Makkah City, Saudi Arabia

Document Type : New and original researches in the field of Microbiology.

Authors

1 Department of Medical Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia

2 Department of Laboratory Medicine Department, Faculty of Applied Medical Science, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia

3 Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Ready-to-eat foods are exposed to contamination in several ways either during harvesting, gathering, or processing. Food contamination with pathogens is a serious concern. Objective: The study amis to detect pathogenic bacteria in ready meals especially the prepared salads in restaurants in Makkah city. Methodology: A total of 110 samples of two types of salads, (55 sliced green salad and 55 crushed salad) were randomly collected from 55 different restaurants. Several types of culture media were used for the isolation of the pathogenic bacteria from salads samples and the identification of pathogenic bacterial strains was done using traditional and automated methods (VITEK2). Results: The current study results showed that Enterococcus faecalis recorded the highest percentage (89%), while Acinetobacter hemolyticus recorded the lowest percentage (1.8 %) among the isolated pathogenic bacterial strains from crushed and sliced green salad samples. Conclusion: This study revealed that most of the salad samples were contaminated with pathogenic bacteria and the highest percentage was recorded among the sliced green salad samples. The high pollution rates indicate a failure to implement health requirements during the preparation of meals in restaurants.

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