Presence of salmonella in ready to eat chicken containing foods in retail outlets in Colombo

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