Bacteriological Survey for Food/Food Contacting Surfaces in Large Grocery Stores in Korea

A bacteriological survey for 20 large grocery stores (M 1 to M20) in Korea was investigated for one year. The average detection rate of Esherichia coli was (166/763) for 7 kinds of ready-to-eat food through the year, where each grocery store and each type of food showed different detection rates. Eleven grocery stores showed lower detection rates, while 9 grocery stores showed a higher than average rate. Especially, M3 showed a rate that was twice as high as the average and one which was 7 times higher than M14, which had the lowest rate of E. coli detection. The detection rate for each type of food was: (41/109) for Kimbop, (34/109) for vegetable salad, (21/109) for bean-curd, (20/109) for the cooked materials used in making Kimbop, (19/109) for Hoe (sliced raw fish) and Sushi (Japanese vinegared rice delicacies), and (12/109) for cooked pork hock. During the summer, the E. coli detection rate averaged (71/166), which was twice as high as other seasons. Most (89/100) of the food contacting surfaces contained more than the critical limit of aerobic viable cell counts (AVC). The AVC and coliform count (CC) of 218 meat samples (beef, pork, and chicken) ranged between 4.6-7.1 CFU/g and 1.9-6.4 CFU/g, except for 41 meat samples which were found to contain no coliform. There was a definite correlation between the AVC and CC, and the values of CC made a more accurate straight than the AVC, which are variable. From these results, it is suggested that a detection rating of less than 2.1 CFU/g of CC (correspond to 5.0 CFU/g of AVC) is the critical point of freshness, and a rating of more than 6.3 CFU/g of CC (correspond to 7.0 CFU/g of AVC) can be considered an initial spoilage point.