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Abstract

Ready-To-Eat (RTE) foods such as sandwiches challenge food safety due to the initial microbial load of ingredients, unhygienic practices and improper temperature during handling and storing. Microbial load in RTE foods such as sandwiches is limited in Oman. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize RTE Cook-Chill Sandwiches (CCS) by microbiologically assessing the safety and quality of the products. Sixty CCS of eggs, chicken, tuna and meat sandwiches were collected from different cafés and supermarkets in Muscat, Oman. Microbial characteristics were evaluated by enumeration of the total bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae and Salmonella sp. The CCS had Total Bacterial Counts (TBC) of 6.0, 6.1, 6.5 and 7.2 log CFU/g in eggs, chicken, tuna and meat sandwiches, respectively; whereas their counts of Enterobacteriaceae (ENT) were 3.8, 3.78, 2.98 and 2.9 log CFU/g in eggs, chicken, tuna and meat sandwiches, respectively. No Salmonella sp. was detected in any of the sandwiches. Based on the Food Standards Australia New Zealand, most of the sandwiches were found to have a low acceptable level of microbial content. Such marginally acceptable levels of microbial content raise the need to implement good hygienic practices in CCS processing and store sandwiches at the recommended temperature. Therefore, further studies with large sample sizes, and the inclusion of more pathogenic bacteria are warranted to clearly evaluate the safety and quality of CCS by identifying risk practices related to areas of cross-contamination, handling and temperature conditions related to the production and vending of CCS.

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