Microbial contamination of spices used in production of meat products

There was investigated microbial quality of spices used in production of meat products (black pepper, allspice, coriander, juniper, cumin, cinnamon, badian, mustard, bay leaf, paprika, rosemary, garlic, ginger, thyme, cardamom). The spices were analysed on the presence of total count of mesophilic, thermoresistant and coliforming microorganisms, Staphylococcus aureus, methicilin resistant S. aureus (MRSA), Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp., Bacillus cereus, Bacillus licheniformis and moulds. For the detection of fungal contamination was used agar with glucose, yeast extract and oxytetracyklin and dichloran-glycerol agar. The cultivation was performed at 25 ±1°C for 5 - 7 days. The microscopic method was used for species identification. The aflatoxin presence was confirmed by ELISA test in all of tested spices and was performed in ppb (pars per billion = μg/kg). TCM ranged from 200 to 5600000 cfu/g, TRM from 20 to 90000 cfu/g and coliforming bacteria from 30 to 3200 cfu/g. B. cereus was present in juniper, mustard, bay leaf, thyme and cardamom (32%), while B. licheniformis was confirmed in 58% of cases (allspice, pepper, ground juniper, badian, bay leaf, paprika, garlic, thyme and cardamom). S. aureus was detected in whole coriander, cinnamon, badian and mustard but only in law number (30, 40, 20 and 10 cfu/g respectively). No strains S. aureus was identified as MRSA. The presence of Salmonella spp. and E. coli was not confirmed. The fungal contamination was found in 14 spices and the their count varied from 0 to 1550 cfu/g. There were confirmed the presence of Aspergillus flavus (allspice whole and ground, black pepper whole and ground, whole coriander, ground cumin, ground bay leaf), Aspergillus niger (allspice whole and ground, black pepper ground, ground juniper, cumin ground, bay leaf ground, ground rosemary, ground thyme), Penicillium glaucum (allspice whole and ground, whole juniper, whole cinnamon), Penicillium claviforme (whole black pepper, whole coriander, cardamom ground), Alternaria alternata (cumin ground, rosemary ground, thyme ground), Mucor (whole and ground coriander and thyme) and Phoma (ground cumin). The aflatoxin presence was confirmed in 11 of samples (57.9%) and the value ranged from 0 to 4 ppb (ground allspice, whole and ground pepper, whole juniper, cumin, cinnamon, badian, bay leaf, paprika, rosemary, thyme).