Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
N.A. Mahyuddin, H. Nadia & W.I. Wan-Zunairah
Faculty of Food Science and Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia
ABSTRACT: The safety of ready-to-eat food is a very important issue. Improper handling of ready-to-
eat food may result in foodborne outbreaks. The main aim of the present work was to study the influence
of hygiene practices of food handler's on microbiological quality oftuna sandwiches produced in a cater-
ing unit.The tuna sandwiches were prepared with two hygiene practices and stored at different tempera-
tures. Both sandwiches were analyzed for different microbiological indicators such as total plate count,
E.coli
and coliform.With good hand hygiene, the presence of presumptive
E.coli
was only observed when
the samples were kept at 30°C at day 6. Otherwise, the
E.coli
count remained unchanged from day 0 of
storage. Presumptive
E.coli
was present in both temperatures when the samples were prepared with poor
hand hygiene. Good hand hygiene practices obviously affected the microbiological quality of the samples
during a period of 6 days of storage at 4°C. Results of the study clearly indicated the importance of prac-
ticing good hand hygiene and temperature control in the preparation of tuna sandwiches to minimize the
risk of bacterial contamination.
Keywords
: Ready-to-eat foods, tuna sandwiches, hygiene practice, storage temperature, total plate count,
E. coli,
coliform
1 INTRODUCTION
The RTE foods are prepared from different types
of raw materials depending on target group. It may
be prepared by using ingredients obtained from
canned food, fermented food, freshly cooked food
or fresh, minimally processed food. The nature of
the ingredient may consist of those prepared from
grains and cereals such as breads and rice; animal
and dairy products such as meats, surimi, cheese,
egg and yogurt; seafood such as canned tuna,
slices of salmon, shrimps; and fruits and vegeta-
bles such as freshly cut-fruits, lettuce, cucumber
and tomatoes.
As the RTE food is gaining its popularity and
most of them are characterized as having high
nutritive contents, high water activity and near
neutral pH, the microbiological quality has becom-
ing a major concern to both service provider and
consumer. Due to this, much effort has been done
to identify the source of contaminants, as well as
to understand those conditions that would appear
to extend the shelf-life the food and minimize the
growth of microbes associated with food-borne
illness (Gibson and Roberts, 1986; Sheridan and
McDowel, 1998; McCann et al., 2003). Therefore,
a lot of studies have been carried out to evaluate the
effects of environmental conditions on the growth
of foodborne pathogen. Beuchat (1996) reported
that food containing fish product must be stored
Ready-to-eat (RTE) food is defined as any food for
consumption without further treatment or process-
ing, or minimally processed foods. RTE foods are
also known as foods which are intended to be
consumed as they are. This definition covers both
open—and pre-wrapped ready-to-eat products and
is intended to apply whether the RTE food may be
consumed hot or cold, purchased in the store to
be eaten elsewhere. They are not normally includes
the take-away and fast food. These foods are usu-
ally stored in refrigeration or at room temperature
(Schaub, 2010).
The demand for the RTE food is now expand-
ing very rapidly worldwide. According to a global
online ACNielsen consumer survey (2006), the
demand for the food was reported to be higher in
Asian region, compared to the Western countries,
especially in Thailand, China, Taiwan and Malay-
sia. The result of the survey also revealed that the
biggest reason for buying ready-to-eat food is con-
venience. This is unsurprising as more women in
Asia are working and therefore they do not have
enough time for cooking. Another important rea-
son is that some consumers believe that the RTE
food is cheaper than buying all the ingredients and
preparing the food from scratch.
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