Food-borne pathogens are becoming a globally formidable health problem and perceived
as a major health concern in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Contamination ensued
through unclean raw food materials and particles, use of polluted water, unhygienic
preparation processes and use of contaminated containers. Herein, the prevalence of
food-borne pathogens in ready-to-eat (RTE) fast foods from fifteen different food
eateries such as 7 restaurants, 6 cafeterias and 2 two college canteens in Al-Quwayiyah,
Riyadh Region of Saudi Arabia was studied. Microbiological analysis of 155 fast food
samples which included, Vegetable salad, Falafel, Kibtha and Shawarma. The isolates
were detected using biochemical tests and API 20E and slide agglutination test were
conducted for
Salmonella
spp. detection. Bacterial growth was found in all food samples
tested. Moreover, the test also showed high levels of total aerobic count: vegetable salad
6.34+0.03, falafel 5.79 + 0.18, kibtha 5.06 +0.02 and shawarma 3.54 + 0.13. Organisms
isolated include
Salmonella spp. (15%),
Escherichia coli
(18%) and
Staphylococcus aureus
(7%).
Salmonella is one of the most virulent pathogen implicated in food-borne
disease outbreaks. There are numerous transmission routes for Salmonellosis, but the
majority of the human infections are derived from consumption of contaminated poultry
products. Consistently,
Salmonella Enteritidis
,
Salmonella Typhimurium
and
Salmonella
Heidelberg are the three most frequent serotypes recovered from humans each year.
Serologically identified
Salmonella serotypes from RTE fast food samples were
Salmonella Typhimurium with 65%, the most predominant one compared to
Salmonella
Enteritidis that was 35%. The bacterial count of vegetable salad, falahfel, kibtha was
statistically significant when compared with Shawarma (
p < 0.05). This result indicated
that most of the ready-to-eat food samples examined in the study did not meet any
bacteriological quality standard as recommended by The New South Wales (NSW) Food
Authority to be <5.0 log10 CFU g−1 and, therefore, it poses potential risks to consumers.
Ready- to- eat fast foods must be cooked and served to the consumers with all hygienic
measures.