Safety retail assessment of meat and chicken products in Lebanon

Abstract

Microbiological hazards are one of the main contaminants associated with the high prevalence of foodborne outbreaks and diseases worldwide. A major concern of food authorities is to reduce the foodborne illnesses by controlling the causative agents. This study was conducted to assess the current safety situation of meat and chicken products from different regions in Lebanon, to compare between establishments implementing a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) or not regarding the levels of microbiological contamination, to compare between local and imported ground beef and to evaluate the effect of normal cooking on the microbial load in chicken breasts. Samples of ground and offal meat and of chicken breast and liver were collected from different representative suppliers covering the main districts in Lebanon. Chicken samples were analyzed for Total Aerobic count (TAC), Total Coliforms (TC), Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. The results showed that 34%, 100%, 80% and 70% of the raw chicken breast samples collected were rejected for TAC, TC, S.aureus and Salmonella respectively. Cooking has reduced the microbial counts between 0.7 and 1.5 log CFU/g. For chicken liver samples, the results showed that 100%, of the samples analyzed were rejected for TC and Salmonella, while all the samples were accepted for TAC and S.aureus. Meat samples were analyzed for TAC, S.aureus and Escherichia coli O157:H7. The results showed that all the ground beef samples (local and imported) were rejected for all types of microorganisms tested, while 20% and 100% of meat offal samples were rejected for TAC and E.coli O157:H7, respectively. S.aureus was not detected in any of the meat offal samples. Also, L.monocytogenes was not reported in any of the chicken or meat samples. The pH values for raw and cooked chicken breast samples ranged from 5.72 to 6.18 and 6.04 to 6.62 respectively and they were related to the safety of the food products.