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This study was conducted to assess the retail food as a possible vehicle for antimicrobial resistant, particularly quinolones resistant and pathogenicEscherichia coli. We determined the prevalence and characteristics of nalidixic acid (Nal) resistantE. coliisolates from diverse retail food samples. In all, 70 (28%) of 250E. coliisolates studied were Nal-resistantE. coliand 91% of these were multi-drug resistant. Plasmid mediated quinolone resistance genes were identified in 32 isolates, includingaac(6′)-Ib-cr(n = 16),qnrS1(n = 11) andqnrB19(n = 7). Mutations ingyrA andparC genes were detected among 80% of the isolates, and the isolates showed substitution Ser83-Leu and Asp87-Asn in gyrA and Ser80-Ile in parC. In addition, three different gene cassettes were identified (aadA1, aadA7, aac(3)-Id) in 18%. Virulence-associated genesstx1, eae, sfa, hlyAandstx2were found in six (8%), three (4%), two (3%), three (4%) and three (4%) isolates, respectively.E. coliisolates of phylogenetic group A were dominant (64%, 45/70). Pulsed field gel electrophoresis revealed none epidemiological relationship between these isolates. The results of this work report the higher frequency of Nal-resistantE. coliisolates from Moroccan retail food samples including MDR and pathogenic isolates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]