Effect of Ingredients on the Bacteriological Profile of Ready to Eat Meat Sandwiches

| The current study aimed to investigate the bacteriological quality of the ready-to-eat (RTE) meat sandwiches prepared using the meat and treated ingredients viz., green salad and tahini sauce. Two hundred and forty samples of RTE meat sandwiches, vegetable salad, and tahini sauce were used in the study. The washing of vegetable salad for 10 min with water providing 50 ppm chlorine reduced (p < 0.05) the aerobic plate count (APC), Bacillus cereus (B. cereus) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) count. Similarly, addition of 1% garlic essential oil during formulation of tahini sauce reduced (p < 0.05) APC, B. cereus and S. aureus count. The counts in RTE meat sandwiches after using treated green salad and tahini sauce reduced (p < 0.05) APC count from (5.58 ± 1.21 and 6.54 ± 1.12) to (3.2 ± 0.22 and 4. 89 ± 0.31) log10CFU/g. The counts of B.cereus reduced (p < 0.05) from (2.98 ± 0.11 and 3.34 ± 0.15) to (<2 and 2. 49 ± 0.09) and S.aureus reduced (p < 0.05) from (3.18 ± 0.15 and 3.85 ± 0.13) to (<2 and 2. 87± 0.09) log10CFU/g. These results demonstrated that use of treated vegetable salad (washed by chlorine water) and tahini sauce (containing 1% garlic essential oil) in preparation of RTE meat sandwiches results the improved bacteriological quality of RTE meat sandwiches.