ISSN: 2574-2701
Authors: Mosbah A, Denden I*, Chahdoura H, Gritly AR, Zaafouri Z and Krifi B
The consumption of ready-to-eat salads (RTE) in developing countries has increased considerably in a time where the food borne disease linked to vegetable salads poses serious safety threats. Most methods have been used to increase the microbiological safety of RTE salads. This study aims to evaluate the impact of the HACCP system on a catering facility for RTE salads such as niçoise salads (NS), Tunisian salads (TS) and green salads (GS). A total of 238 samples were tested to determine the microbiological quality and identify possible correlations between them. 118 samples were evaluated before the implementation of the HACCP system and 120 samples after the application of the HACCP approach. The microbiological evaluation was focused on the total mesophilic flora (TMF), Staphylococcus aureus (SA), Escherichia coli (EC) and Salmonella spp. The obtained results indicated that the implementation of the HACCP system had no effect on the general microbiological profile since the general unsatisfactory analysis rate was 85% before HACCP implementation system and remained unchangeable after the HACCP application. However, a significant difference between NS, TS and GS where distinguishable with NS presenting the best ranking (35%) of satisfactory analysis. For EC profile, a significant association between the EC deterioration state of RTES and the HACCP application was found. While, a significant association between TMF classifications and the three RTE categories was noted. However, no significant changes of SA profile between the three RTES categories were observed. Besides, no Salmonella spp was detected during the current analysis (n= 238). Thus, the binary logistic regression on microbial profiles revealed high correlation between the SA and EC classification outcomes. Hence, through this study a personalized and operational microbial model was presented which leads to better prediction of failures leading to inspire professionals to adopt the present statistical model for identifying the contamination and to explore appropriate solutions.
Keywords: RTE Salads; Microbiological Safety; HACCP; Total Mesophilic Flora; Staphylococcus Aureus; Escherichia Coli; Salmonella Spp
