This study aimed to examine the quality and safety of some street vended meat meals in Alexandria governorate, Egypt. 105 sample of meat meals including 35 samples each of Kofta, pasta and Hawawshi were randomly collected from the street mainly for Bacillus Cereus isolation and detection of their virulent gene responsible for Cereulide production by PCR technique. As well as total aerobic count and total anaerobic count were done to all samples to evaluate the hygienic condition of these products.. Bacillus cereus was detected in 45(42.9%) samples out of 105 examined meat meal samples, and the Mean ± SEM of B. cereus in Kofta, Pasta & Hawawshi were 5.70 x 102± 1.39 x 102, 2.37 x 102± 0.43 x 102 and 5.10 x 102± 0.69 x 102 respectively. theCereulide gene coud be detected in some isolates from meat meals samples which were 3 isolates from each product and it was negative in all isolates from Kofta (0/3), while in Pasta two isolates from the 3 tested ones were positive to Cereulide virulent gene(2/3), and in Hawawshi all the tested isolates were positive to Cereulide virulent gene(3/3). The mean value of total aerobic count in Kofta, Pasta &Hawawshi were 4.55 x 104± 0.17 x 104, 5.07 x 103± 0.11 x 103 & 1.21 x 104± 0.27 x 104 respectively. At the same time we had an unneglectable results from the anaerobic samples analysis which had been recorded where the Mean ± SEM of Kofta, Pasta &Hawawshi were 4.54 x 10 ± 0.68 x 10 ,9.29 x 10 ± 1.90 x 10, 6.87 x 10 ± 0.97 x 10 respectively. Recommendation and measures that should be implemented to introduce safe meat meals were discussed.
Key words: Bacillus cereus, Meat meals, Food poisoning, Cereulide gene.
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