Bacteriological assessment of Street Vended Meat Products sandwiches in kalyobia Governorate

Contamination of ready-to-eat foods sold by street vendors rendering them unacceptable for humanconsumption and become a global health problem. This study aimed to examine the quality and safetyof street vended meat products in kalyobia governorate . Eighty samples of meat products including 20samples each of beef burger, kofta, sausages and hawawshi were randomly collected from the streetvendorsin kalyobia governorate to evaluate their bacteriological quality. The results revealed that themean values of APC, Enterobacteriaceae, coliform and staphylococcus counts (cfu /g) were 3.97×105,5.82×103, 6.53×102 and 2.76×103 for burger , 8.51×105, 7.15×103, 9.25×102 and 5.41×103 for kofta,1.33×106, 9.91×103, 4.38×103 and 1.23×104 for sausage , 6.76×106, 4.07×104, 1.12×104 and 6.11×104for hawawshi respectively. Also Staph. aureus were isolated with an incidence of 40% , 45% , 55%and70% ( with mean value of 7.54×102 , 8.13×102 , 1.96×103 and 4.28×103 cfu/g)from the examinedsamples of burger, kofta, sausage and hawawshi, respectively. Also the incidences of isolation of E.colifrom the same examined samples were 10% ,15%, 25% and 30%, respectively. The obtained resultswere compared to the published microbiological guidelines for RTE food of center of food safety(2014)to assess their bacteriological quality and It was recommended that this guidelines may be adaptedlocally(for RTE Egyptian food) until more precise microbial criteria for this food type could bedeveloped through an appropriate scientific process.