Evaluation of hygiene practices on microbiological quality of tuna sandwiches - Theory and Practice in Hospitality and Tourism Research - page 414

Table 2. Presence of E.coli tuna sandwich prepared
using two levels of hand hygiene during 6 days of stor-
age at two temperatures.

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Storage
temperature

Days of
storage

Good hygiene
(MPN/g)

Poor hygiene
(MPN/g)

4°C 0 Absent Present

3 Absent Present

6 Absent Present

30°C 0 Absent Present

3 Absent Present

6 Present Present

and growth of E.coli 0157:H7 on lettuce and pars-
ley decreased in number when the vegetables were
kept at 4 - 5°C but the population has increased
when the products were stored at 12°C and 21°C.
Generally, the base temperature for E.coli is 10°C
(Roberts, 1995). However, there would be some
variation in the base temperature as some fraction
of E.coli cells may elongate during incubation even
at 2 - 4°C, and the elongated cells subsequently
may be divided at 4°C when temperatures fluc-
tuates occasionally (Jones et al., 2004). Jones et
al.(2004)also reported that the elongated cells were
divided when the incubation temperature fluctu-
ated at 6 hour intervals, but not when temperatures
were constant.

4 CONCLUSION

The results showed that tuna sandwich stored at
high temperature with poor hand hygiene practice
in the study exhibited unsatisfactory and unaccept-
able microbiological quality that posed health risks
for consumers. Results of the study clearly indicate
the importance of practicing good hand hygiene in
the preparation of RTE food to minimize the risk
of bacterial contamination. Besides, the RTE food
prepared must be kept at low temperature, as the
food will not undergo anymore treatment prior to
consumption. In addition, the storage temperature
is considered vital to the quality of tuna sandwich.
The knowledge of good hand hygiene practice is
very important for handler to avoid any risk of
foodborne outbreak.

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