MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY OF READY TO EAT FRIED FISH

A total of 25 ready to eat fried fish samples were aseptically collected from various food restaurants in Assiut City. These samples were examin ed bacteriologically by standard procedures for determination of aerobic plate count (APC), and counts of enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcus aureus and enterococci. The APC ranged from 16x10 to 188x10 colony forming unit (CFU)/gm. The counts of enterobacteriaceae, Staph aureus and enterococci ranged from 10 to 85x10', 1x10 to 15x102 and 3x102 to 175x102 with a mean values of 4.75x105, 1.80 x 102 and 20.1 x 102 CFU/gm respectively. E.coli, Staph aureus, Clostridium perfringens and Strept faecalis were isolated from the examined samples where 12%, 20%, 8% and 36% of the samples were positive for such organisms respec tively. Salmonella and Shigella failed to be recovered from the examined samples. The results of this investigation indicate that foodborne patho gens present in fried fish constitutes a public health hazard.