Some Food Piosoning Organisms in Street-Vended Ice Cream in Alexandria

Abstract

Although ice cream is widely used allover the world especially in summer season and considered palatable to consumers especially children, it may constitute a serious public health hazard due to its contamination from a variety of sources with different types of microorganisms. Sixty random samples of frozen ice cream with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavor (20 each) were collected from street-vendors and hawkers in Alexandria city. The samples were examined for the incidence of some food poisoning organisms in ice cream products. The incidence of Bacillus cereus in the examined samples of street-v ended frozen ice cream with chocolate. strawberry and vanilla flavor was 20, 25 and 15%. respectively. Clostridium perfringens was detected in 10, 15, and 10% of examined ice cream, respectively. The mean counts of Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (cfulg) l.22x10 4 + 0.4x10 4; 4.1 x 10 4 + 0.54 x 10 4 and l.08 x 10 4 + 6.3 x 10 3 with respective incidence of 20, 25 and 1 5%.Comparing the results with Egyptian standards (1993) which stipulate that ice cream must be free from Laureus, it is clear that 30, 25, 20 % of examined street-vended ice cream samples with chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavor did not comply with it, respectively. Yersinia enterocolitica could be isolated from only one % of street-vended ice cream samples with strawberry. The importance of the concerned microorganisms as public health hazards and recommendations for control has been highlighted.