Fecal contamination of ice cream mix powder sold in Assiut City [electronic resources].

One hundred and fifty random samples of ice cream mix powder with chocolate, mango, strawberry, vanilla, orange, banana and Nescafe flavors (200 grams weigh each) were collected from different groceries and supermarkets in Assiut City over a period of one year and examined for fecal contamination. Our current results showed that, Enterobacteriaceae were isolated from 38.7% of samples with a minimum of 10², a maximum of 8.7X10² and an average of 3.2XI0/g. The highest frequency distribution 46 (79.32%) had numbers ofiess than 10² cfu/g and 12 (20.68%) had counts ranged from 10²_<10³ cfu/g. Enterococci could be isolated from 10.7% of the examined samples with a minimum, a maximum and an average count of <100, 6Xl0³ and 4.08XI0³/g, respectively. The frequency distribution of positive samples was descending from 9 (56.25%), 4 (25.0%) and 3 (18.75%) containing Enterococci in counts ranged from 10²-<10³, <10² and 10³_<10‭‭‭4/g, respectively. Otherwise, 5 (3.33%) samples were contaminated by both coliforms and fecal coliforms with frequency distribution of 3 (60%) that had counts of less than 10/g and 2 (40%) had counts ranged from 10-<10²/g. E. coli could not be detected. Recommendations were suggested to control the presence of such microorganisms in ice cream mix powder samples to avoid their undesirable changes that resulted in economic losses as well as public health hazard.

Summary in Arabic.