Prevalence of Spp., Spp., and , and Population Levels of Food Safety Indicator Microorganisms in Retail Raw Chicken Meat and Ready-To-Eat Fresh Leafy Greens Salads Sold in Greece

Overview

Journal Foods

Specialty Biotechnology

Date 2023 Dec 23

PMID 38137306

Authors

Dimitra Kostoglou

Maria Simoni

Georgios Vafeiadis

Nikolaos-Marios Kaftantzis

Efstathios Giaouris

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The presence of microbial pathogens in foods compromises their safety resulting in foodborne illnesses, public health disorders, product recalls, and economic losses. In this work, 60 samples of chilled raw chicken meat and 40 samples of packaged ready-to-eat (RTE) fresh leafy greens salads, sold in Greek retail stores (butchers and supermarkets), were analyzed for the presence of three important foodborne pathogenic bacteria, i.e., spp., spp., and , following the detection protocols of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In parallel, the total aerobic plate count (APC), , total coliforms, , and staphylococci were also enumerated as hygiene (safety) indicator organisms. When present, representative typical colonies for each pathogen were biochemically verified, following the ISO guidelines. At the same time, all the isolates from chicken ( = 120) were identified to the species level and further phylogenetically discriminated through multiplex and repetitive sequence-based (rep) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods, respectively. Concerning raw chicken, spp. were recovered from 54 samples (90.0%) and spp. were recovered from 9 samples (15.0%), while was present in 35 samples (58.3%). No was recovered from salads, and was present in only one sample (2.5%), while three salads were found to be contaminated with (7.5%). The 65% of the chicken isolates belonged to , whereas the rest, 35%, belonged to . Alarmingly, APC was equal to or above 10 CFU/g in 53.3% and 95.0% of chicken and salad samples, respectively, while the populations of some of the other safety indicators were in some cases also high. In sum, this study unravels high occurrence percentages for some pathogenic and food safety indicator microorganisms in raw chicken meat and RTE fresh leafy greens salads sold in Greek retail, highlighting the need for more extensive microbiological control throughout the food production chain (from the farm/field to the market).

Citing Articles

Investigating the Potential of L(+)-Lactic Acid as a Green Inhibitor and Eradicator of a Dual-Species spp. Biofilm Formed on Food Processing Model Surfaces.

Kostoglou D, Apostolopoulou M, Lagou A, Didos S, Argiriou A, Giaouris E Microorganisms. 2024; 12(11).

PMID: 39597514 PMC: 11596057. DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12112124.

Comparative Assessment of the Antibacterial and Antibiofilm Actions of Benzalkonium Chloride, Erythromycin, and L(+)-Lactic Acid against Raw Chicken Meat spp. Isolates.

Kostoglou D, Vass A, Giaouris E Antibiotics (Basel). 2024; 13(3).

PMID: 38534636 PMC: 10967412. DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics13030201.

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