Effect of thermal processing on coliforms in minced beef and their public health significance in Port-Said City [electronic resource].

Includes reference.

Fifty samples of apparently healthy minced beef were randomly purchased from butcher's shops of Port-Said city. The samples were examined for enumeration, isolation and identification of total coliforms, fecal coliforms and Escherichia coli before and after thermal treatment. The incidence of positive fresh minced beef samples for total coliform, fecal coliform and Escherichia coli were 100% (50), 100% (50) and 66% (33), while that of roasting samples were 82% (41), 74% (37) and 50% (25) but the incidence of pan frying minced beef samples were 64% (32), 60% (30) and 34% (17) respectively. The mean values of the total coliform counts were 4.6 X 10³ , 1.5 X 10³ and 5.8 X 10² MPN/g and that of fecal coliform counts were 1.1 X 10³ , 5.1 X 10² and 2.6 X 10² MPN/g in fresh, roasting and pan frying minced beef respectively. Meanwhile, the mean values of the Escherichia coli counts were 5.8 X 10²,2.1 X 10² and 4.8 X 101 MPN/g in fresh, roasting and pan frying minced beef respectively. The numbers of total coliform isolates were 88, 54 and 32 and that of fecal coliform were 63, 44 and 31 and the number of Escherichia coli isolates were 33, 25 and 17 for fresh, roasting and pan frying minced beef samples respectively. The bacterial isolates in the examined samples were identified as Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Citrobacter freundii, Citrobacter koseri and Serratia marcescens. The effect of thermal processing on total and fecal coliforms and Escherichia coli in the examined samples were discussed.

Summary in Arabic.