Microbial quality of selected sandwiches sold at fast food shops in Dhaka city

Abstract

The project was designed to undertake a study on the microbiological status of the different types of sandwich e.g. egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad sandwich, beef sandwich and vegetable sandwich taken from seven different fast food shops located in different areas of Dhaka city. Both qualitative and quantitative microbiological analyses of seven sandwiches were done and microbes were identified by standard biochemical tests. The quantitative analysis and biochemical tests showed that the sandwich sample contained a number of microorganism of which 37 isolates identified. From the results of standard biochemical test for identification of all the 37 isolates from sandwich sample it has been observed that the sandwich sample contains Alcalegenes sp. (2.7%) Bacillus sp (2.7%), Shigella sp(2.7%), Klebshiella sp (5.4%), Enterobacter sp (10.5%), Escherichia coli (10.8%) and Salmonella sp(10.8%), Vibrio sp (13.5%) and Saccharomyces sp(13.5%) and Staphylococcus sp(19%) depending on the types of the sandwich. The highest found in beef sandwich (6.0×108 CFU/g) moderate in chicken salad sandwich (3.7×106 CFU/g) and egg salad sandwich (2.1×106 CFU/g) and small count in vegetable sandwich (2.3×104 CFU/mg). The degree of initial contamination in sandwich samples which may pose hazard to public health has been discussed. It was concluded that the hygienically maintained food retained the best quality attributes required for consumer’s acceptability and safety