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Volume 3, Issue 1 (Suppl) Toxicol Open Access
ISSN: 2476-2067 TYOA, an open access journal Toxicology Congress 2017
April 13-15, 2017
April 13-15, 2017 Dubai, UAE
8th World Congress on
Toxicology and Pharmacology
Evaluation of microbial quality of ready-to-eat foods sold in Doha, Qatar
Shifa Zuhara and Ipek Goktepe
Qatar University, Qatar
Food safety is an integral part of environmental public health. According to Kunová et al. (2015), there has been many
reports on ready-to-eat foods (RTEF) being the basis for foodborne outbreaks in recent years. In Qatar, 5.4% of the
total communicable diseases reported from 2008 to 2011 were due to foodborne disease (SCH, 2013). There is very limited
information regarding the microbial quality of food sold in mainly fast-food restaurants and cafeterias in Qatar. Therefore, this
preliminary study was carried out to evaluate the microbial quality of ready-to-eat foods sold in selected food establishments
in Qatar. Chicken and burger sandwiches and green salads were collected on a monthly basis from selected cafeterias and
fast-food restaurants. The total aerobic, coliform, Salmonella spp., and Listeria spp. counts were determined using plate count
agar (PCA), MacConkey Agar (MCA), Violet Red Bile Agar (VRBA), Listeria Selective Agar (LSA), respectively. The results
indicated that the APC counts of the chicken and burger sandwiches were considered unsatisfactory since their counts were
above the set international standards. For instance, the average total aerobic microorganism count for burger sandwich was
7.13 Log10 CFU/g, which is much higher than the safety guideline set at ≥5 Log10 CFU/g. Additionally, the total aerobic counts
of green salads were determined to be 7.24 log10 CFU/g which is higher than the set guideline of 6 Log10 CFU/g. The total
counts were ≥7 Log10 CFU/g for Salmonella spp., coliform, and Listeria spp. which are also considered to be unsatisfactory
levels. These results demonstrate that it is necessary to improve awareness on food handling and sanitation practices applied in
these restaurants to avoid any future foodborne outbreak.
Biography
Shifa Zuhara is a Senior Undergraduate Student of Environmental Sciences Program in the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, College of
Arts and Sciences at Qatar University. She is currently working on her graduation project dealing with evaluating the microbial quality of ready-to-eat foods sold in
Doha, Qatar.
Shifa Zuhara et al., Toxicol Open Access 2017, 3:1 (Suppl)