Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 11.2
Results of microbial testing for indicator organisms and pathogens on RTE food
products sampled from markets in census tracts representing different population demographics.
Means or percentages with the same capital letter within the same food product/column are
signifi cantly different (
p
≤
0.05)
Percentage of positive
samples
Levels of
Food product
Tract category
Total coliforms
a
Fecal coliforms
S. aureus
Sandwiches
Caucasian (
n
= 117)
2.6 ± 1.5
a,b
17.9
a
8.5
African American
(
n
= 112)
2.5 ± 1.3
c
21.4
8.9
Asian (
n
= 66)
2.6 ± 1.4
d
33.3
a
10.6
Hispanic (
n
= 96)
2.2 ± 1.5
a,e
26
5.2
High SES
b
(
n
= 110)
3.2 ± 1.5
b,c,d,e,f
22.7
7.3
Low SES (
n
= 60)
2.3 ± 1.5
f
21.3
5.3
Lunchmeat
Caucasian (
n
= 58)
1.0 ± 1.3
10.3
3.4
African American
(
n
= 58)
1.1 ± 1.2
10.3
5.2
Asian (
n
= 38)
1.1 ± 1.1
7.9
2.6
Hispanic (
n
= 57)
1.2 ± 1.4
19.3
3.5
High SES (
n
= 55)
0.9 ± 1.0
12.7
5.5
Low SES (
n
= 49)
0.9 ± 1.1
14.3
2
RTE fruit
Caucasian (
n
= 16)
2.0 ± 1.3
18.8
18.8
African American
(
n
= 6)
2.8 ± 1.7
16.7
ND
c
Asian (
n
= 29)
2.5 ± 1.7
27.6
a
ND
Hispanic (
n
= 8)
2.4 ± 1.8
ND
12.5
High SES (
n
= 57)
2.2 ± 1.2
10.5
a
7
Low SES (
n
= 13)
2.6 ± 1.7
30.8
ND
RTE greens
Caucasian (
n
= 11)
3.6 ± 1.1
a,b
45.5
a
9.1
African American
(
n
= 2)
4.4 ± 0.0
c
ND
b
ND
Asian (
n
= 28)
4.1 ± 0.7
d
71.4
c
ND
Hispanic (
n
= 4)
2.1 ± 1.8
a,c,d,e,f
25
d
ND
High SES (
n
= 46)
4.0 ± 0.7
e
26.1
c,e
8.7
Low SES (
n
= 7)
4.4 ± 0.0
b,f
100
a,b,d,e
ND
a
Means Log
10
MPN/g ± SD
b
SES = Socioeconomic status
c
ND = None detected
A pilot study in Baltimore, MD, attempted to compare the prevalence of
S. aureus
and
E. coli
in raw chicken and ground beef between small and large stores
in areas of high food access (HFA) and areas of LFA. Overall, results of the preva-
lence of
S. aureus
and
E. coli
in meat available in this urban area were within the
ranges of other recent retail studies. While the data appeared to indicate that small
stores were more likely to carry meat and poultry contaminated with the organisms,
the researchers were not able to attain a suffi cient sample size for statistical analy-
