Abstract:
In Sri Lanka with in the last 25 years life style and eating habits faced a dramatic change.
Also poultry saw a high growth. All these contributed to increase in the incidence of food
poisoning outbreaks. Food microbiology in increasing in importance due to these factors
and this preliminary study was carried out to check the two most popular meat dishes i.e.
chicken curry and roasted chicken for the presence of salmonella. Twenty five gram
portions were homogenized and enriched in 1 per cent buffered peptone. Selective
enrichment was carried out in 3 enrichment broths tetrathionate,selenite and rappaport
vassiliadis broth. Primary isolation was carried out using xylose lysine desoxycholate agar
and mannitol lysine crystal violet and brilliant green agra. One roasted chicken sample and
one chicken curry sample were positive for salmonella. Isolates were identified as
salmonella species based on the biochemical profile obtained with API 20E and confirmed
by serotyping. They were found to be group E2 and D. Though the sample was small the
presence of salmonella in cooked food is an alarming public health threat. This calls for
preventive measures and strengthening of food microbiology services
