Bacteriological Survey of the Frozen Prepared Foods Industry

Abstract

During inspection of 21 frozen breaded raw shrimp processors, 861 finished product units (retail packages) and 778 line samples were collected and analyzed bacteriologically. The bacteriological results for the finished product samples collected in plants with poor and good sanitary controls are presented and compared. The samples consisted of 4 to 38 units (retail packages) of the finished product as offered for sale by the processors. Frozen raw breaded shrimp collected from plants operating under good conditions of sanitation had the following bacterial contents: 85% of the samples had an average (geometric) aerobic plate count of less than 1,000,000 per gram; all of the samples had an average (geometric) most probable number of less than 1,000 coliforms per g; 81% of the samples contained less than 20% Escherichia coli -positive units; 57% of the total number of units in 0.1-g portions were negative for coagulase-positive staphylococci, and 95% of the units had less than 1,000 coagulase-positive staphylococci per gram.