Bacteriological quality of ready to eat meals served at governmental hospital in Egypt.

The consumption of ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and chicken products in modern times represents high health threat as the opportunistic and commensal microorganisms may cause severe problems. Ninety random samples of cooked meat, grilled kofta and fried chicken (30 of each) as well as, 90 swabs of worker's hands, table surfaces and knives (30 of each) were collected from central restaurant of a governmental hospital, Cairo Governorate to evaluate their bacteriological quality. Aerobic plate count (APC), Enterobacteriaceae count, coliform count, S. aureus count were determined. Moreover, detection of Enteropathogenic E. coli, S. aureus, Salmonella spp. and K. pneumoniae was performed. The revealed results indicated significant differences between cooked meat, grilled kofta and fried chicken at (P<0.05). The mean values of APC, Enterobacteriaceae, coliform and S. aureus counts were 6.09×10⁴, 5.45×10³, 2.57 ×10³ and 6.12×10³ (cfu/g) in cooked meat, 1.81×10⁵, 1.81×10⁴, 6.05×10³ and 9.44×10³ for grilled kofta, and 3.24×10⁵, 2.97×10⁴, 8.83×10³, 1.75×10⁴ for fried chicken, respectively. The most accepted product was cooked meat while the lowest accepted one was fried chicken. Furthermore, the incidence of enterotoxins secreted by S. aureus was 3.3% and 6.7% (type A) for grilled kofta and fried chicken, respectively, while type C was only present in fried chicken (3.3%). Type D enterotoxin was recovered in cooked meat, grilled kofta and fried chicken with equal percent (3.3%). Types (A+B) S, aureus enterotoxins were found in grilled kofta (3.3%), however types A and C were detected in cooked meat and fried chicken (3.3% of each). The results revealed that fried chicken samples were most contaminated with E. coli, Salmonella and K. pneumonia. Moreover, K. pneumonia were isolated at 13.3%, 20% and 30%, respectively. High virulent and classic K. pneumonia also were isolated. The Incidence of pathogenic bacteria S. aureus, E. coli, Salmonellae and K. pneumonia in the swabs of worker hands were 30%, 0%, 0% and 10%, respectively and 10%, 20%, 10%, 20% form table surfaces and 20%, 10%, 0% and 10% from knives.