Assessing microbiological quality of ready-to-eat prepacked sandwiches, in Crete, Greece
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Assessing microbiological quality of ready-to-eat prepacked sandwiches, in Crete, Greece Manolis N. Kokkinakis1,2 • Georgios A. Fragkiadakis1 • Nikolaos E. Lapidakis1 Aikaterini N. Kokkinaki2
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Revised: 9 April 2020 / Accepted: 17 April 2020 Ó Association of Food Scientists & Technologists (India) 2020
Abstract The microbiological quality of pre-packed sandwiches, prepared by a company which had implemented the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points system, was assessed at retail level, in Crete, Greece. Totally, we analyzed 225 sandwiches (S1: ham, cheese; S2: ham, cheese, tomato; S3: tuna salad), for specific pathogens (Listeria monogytenes, Salmonella spp, Staphylococcus aureus) and hygiene indicators (Escherichia coli, Enterobacteriaceae, Aerobic Colony Count-ACC). Pathogens were not detected. The E. coli numbers enumerated in day 0 (factory level) were found within acceptable levels \ 100 cfu/g; limited samples had unsatisfactory values at the 3rd day of retailing storage (7%, 7%, and 27% [ 100 cfu/g for S1, S2, and S3, respectively), which were further increased at the 7th day (20%, 33% and 53% [ 100 cfu/g for S1, S2, and S3, respectively). The Enterobacteriaceae numbers mean log CFU/g were in the satisfactory or acceptable category with an increase in the range of 19.5–49.5% at the 7th day, nevertheless never exceeded the borderline of 4 log CFU/g. All ACC values
& Manolis N. Kokkinakis [email protected] Georgios A. Fragkiadakis [email protected] Nikolaos E. Lapidakis [email protected] Aikaterini N. Kokkinaki [email protected] 1
Food Quality Laboratory, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics Sciences, Hellenic Mediterranean University, 72300 Siteia, Crete, Greece
2
Laboratory of Toxicology, Medical School, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
were satisfactory or acceptable as no value higher than 7 log CFU/g was recorded. Overall there was a difference between the three sandwiches types, with S2 and S3, exhibiting higher levels than S1, possibly due to the extra ingredients. A number of corrective actions can be applied, as i.e. revision of cooking-chilling times, sanitizing procedures, staff hygiene practices and training etc. Keywords Ready to eat (RTE) foods Sandwiches Microbiological quality Retailing HACCP
Introduction Crete, the most heavily populated island of Greece, is the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with more than 1000 km coastline. It has three major airports (two of them serve international routes) and six ports, while the main economic activities are tourism and agriculture. Crete’s airports received more than 2.5 million passengers during 2010, second after only Athens’s airport, while tourists have the opportunity to choose among 1600 hotels for accommodation purposes (Greek Tourism Confederation, SETE, 2019). Cretan nutrition and diet have been proven to promote human health and longevity (Hertog et al. 1995; Kromhout et al. 1995; Willett et al. 1995; Padilla 2001; Mentella et al. 2019) and visitors have the chance to t
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