Microbial risk assessment of ready-to-eat fast foods from different street-vended restaurants

Research (Published online: 03-05-2020)

8. Microbial risk assessment of ready-to-eat fast foods from different street-vended restaurants

Abdullah Al Momen Sabuj, Zobayda Farzana Haque, Md. Iftekhar Younus, Amrita Pondit, Nanda Barua, Md. Golzar Hossain, Md. Alimul Islam and Sukumar Saha

International Journal of One Health, 6(1): 41-48

ABSTRACT

Aim: Microbiological risk analysis of ready-to-eat fast foods for sale on the campus of Bangladesh Agricultural University was undertaken to understand the contribution of such foods to foodborne disease.

Materials and Methods: From each of 10 randomly selected fast food outlets, a total of 120 samples of six food items were collected to assess common microbial load. In parallel, vendors were asked about their food production and selling practices, while consumers (n=200) were asked about their consumption of fast foods and whether they had experienced symptoms of foodborne disease.

Results: Aerobic plate count (APC) varied from 6.92 to 7.24 log colony-forming unit (cfu)/g, Staphylococcus spp. 4.67 to 5.15 log cfu/g, Salmonella spp. 3.67 to 4.22 log cfu/g, and Escherichia coli 4.10 to 4.58 log cfu/g. Microbial risk assessment of Staphylococcus spp., Salmonella spp., and E. coli for daily, weekly, or monthly consumption was estimated by Monte Carlo simulation (10,000 iterations). The consumer survey showed 57% chance of being infected by ready-to-eat fast food samples. The calculated mean annual risks of Staphylococcus spp., Salmonella spp., and E. coli infection were about 100% in all cases.

Conclusion: Thus, the study revealed high risk of infection associated with the consumption of ready-to-eat fast foods.

Keywords: fast foods, microbial quality, microbial risk, Monte Carlo simulation.