Bacteriological Quality of Retailed Chicken Meat Products in Zagazig City, Egypt

Chicken meat products have a high biological value; they are good sources of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Despite this high biological value, these products act as a good substrate for different types of bacteria and have been implicated in many foodborne disease outbreaks. Therefore, a total of 60 random samples of chicken meat products (nuggets, luncheon and pane, 20 of each) were collected from Zagazig City, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt for bacteriological examination (Aerobic Plate Count, Staphylococci count, Pseudomonas count, determination of most probable number of Coliform and E. coli.). The obtained results revealed that the mean aerobic plate counts were 5.18±0.19, 4.88±0.20 and 4.73±0.29 log10 CFU/g; Staphylococci counts were 2.96±0.20, 3.14±0.21 and 3.32±0.16 log10 CFU/g; Pseudomonas counts were 2.17±0.30, 2±0.28 and 2.34±0.21 log10 CFU/g; most probable numbers of Coliforms were 3.37±0.11, 3.83±0.27 and 3.64±0.30 log10 CFU/g; and most probable numbers of E. coli were 2.14±0.17, 2.56±0.30 and 2.64±0.25 log10 CFU/g in the examined nuggets, luncheon and pane, respectively. According to the Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS), the examined chicken product samples were 10(21.67%), 9(15%), 28(46.67%), 49(81.67%), 31(51.67%) and 30(50%) accepted for aerobic plate count, Staphylococci count, S. aureus, Pseudomonas count, Coliform and E. coli, respectively. In conclusion, the examined chicken meat products revealed unsatisfactory hygienic measures. Therefore, strict hygienic practices should be adopted during processing of chicken meat products to improve the bacteriological quality of such products.