Sanitation characteristics of some food processing industries

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the sanitary conditions surrounding the food throughout the production stages in some food plants. Observation of the sanitary measures of the studied plants revealed that only 3 out of the 7 plants (42.9%) have acceptable sanitation that complies with the sanitary requirements specified by WHO. Personal hygiene and storage conditions were the most critical problems found in the studied plants. Laboratory examination of nasal and throat swabs and stool samples of workers was carried out to uncover the chronic carriers. Among the food handlers examined 46.3% were positive for intestinal parasites. Bacteriological examination of stool specimens revealed that 4.3% of carriers of Salmonella paratyphi and none were carriers of Vibreo species. Nasal swabs were also positive for Staph. aureus in 29.8% of all the examined swabs. Analysis of the main products of the studied plants revealed generally that the bacterial load of the products of plants having acceptable sanitary conditions was lower than that of the products of the other plants. The frozen vegetable products had a total aerobic mesophilic plate count ranging from 8.1 x 10(4) cfu/g in okra and 3.7 x 10(5) cfu/g in mixed vegetables. The total aerobic plate count of the ice cream (1 x 10(3) cfu/g) complies with specified Egyptian standards. However, the coliform count (9 x 10(1) MPN) was higher than the recommended limit. Lead and cadmium levels were also investigated in all products. The maximum detected level of lead was that of cream wafer (0.94 ppm) followed by banana wafer (0.82 ppm). The two detected levels were higher than Egyptian standards. The lead level in ice cream (0.19 ppm) was also higher than the specified standards. The relatively high levels of lead in cream wafer and ice cream may be attributed to more than one factor; the added color and the old machinery used in some production steps are the most accursed factors. On the other hand, the observed level of cadmium ranged between 0.046 ppm in raw mil and 0.3 ppm in soft cheese.