Microbiological quality of ready-to-eat meat and meat products sold in Mumbai city

Microbial quality of ready-to-eat (RTE) chicken burger, chicken pizza, chicken lollypop, chicken pattice, chicken roll, mutton chop, mutton burger, mutton kabab and mutton samosa sold in Mumbai on railway stalls, small shops and streets were assessed. All the RTE foods had high total viable count (log cfu/g 7.21 +/- 1.55), Staphylococcal count (log cfu/g 3.88 +/- 2.10), Fecal coliform count (log cfu/g 4.70 +/- 2.37) and Fecal Streptococcal count (log cfu/g 3.56+2.25). Coagulase positive S. aureus was isolated from 7.7% samples of chicken roll and mutton chop, 7.1% of mutton burger and 6.6% of chicken pizza. S. enteritidis was detected in one sample each of chicken roll and mutton chop; S. gallinarum in chicken pizza, chicken burger and chicken pattice and S. typhimurium in mutton burger. Packed samples of chicken pizza are. potential source of all the organisms. Type of outlet did not have any significant effect on the quality of chicken and mutton based RTE food. Street samples are more hazardous followed by small shop and railway stall samples.