Listeria

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases Volume 2011, Article ID 968031, 6 pages doi:10.1155/2011/968031

Research Article Listeria spp. in Street-Vended Ready-to-Eat Foods
Moustafa El-Shenawy,1 Mohamed El-Shenawy,2 Jordi Ma˜ es,3 and Jose M. Soriano3 n
1 Department

of Food and Environmental Microbiology, National Research Center, Dokki, Cairo12311, Egypt of Environmental Microbiology, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Al-Anfushy, Alexandria 11695, Egypt 3 Observatory of Nutrition and Food Safety in Developing Countries, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Valencia, Burjassot 46100, Spain
2 Department

Correspondence should be addressed to Moustafa El-Shenawy, melshenawy@hotmail.com Received 9 September 2011; Accepted 11 November 2011 Academic Editor: Ashrafus Safa Copyright © 2011 Moustafa El-Shenawy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Street-vended ready-to-eat food sold inEgypt, including sandwiches and dishes of traditional food, was examined for the presence of Listeria species. Out of 576 samples, 24% were found to contain Listeria species. L. monocytogenes and L. innocua were isolated from 57% and 39% of the contaminated samples, respectively. Other Listeria spp. were detected with lower frequency. L. monocytogenes of ≥103 CFU/g were detected in 7% of the totalexamined samples, which represent 49% of the contaminated food samples (meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products, and products of plant origin). Most of the samples contaminated by L. monocytogenes had high levels of total viable bacterial counts. The results obtained may help to clarify the epidemiology of listeriosis in the country and draw the attention of the decision makers to issue hygienicregulations for food processing industries as well as street vendors in order to ensure safe street-vended ready-to-eat food.

1. Introduction
In Egypt, people eat foods that include sandwiches and variety of hot dishes which are mostly sold by street vendors. Street vendors, in Egypt, usually have small mobile carts with cabinets manufactured from wood, and sometimes covered with glass, toprotect their foods from the environmental contamination. They always use utensils manufactured from aluminum, stainless steel, and plastic to prepare and serve their foods. Vendors sell sandwiches prepared from readyto-eat fillings such as luncheon (processed, repacked meat/ chicken often molded into a loaf and served sliced), basturma (air-dried seasoned beef), salmon, tuna, hard cheese (Romy), whitesoft cheese (Damietta), processed cheese, and creambased sandwiches in addition to ice cream. Other fillings are prepared in streets by boiling or frying meat products, seafood, poultry, eggs, fuol medames (overnight boiled faba beans), falafel (fried paste of faba beans, green vegetables, onion, garlic, and other spices) as well as koshary dishes, which consist of rice, macaroni, black lentil,and fried onion. The hot climate and the environmental conditions such as the dusty streets, in which these vendors are working, favor bacterial growth, and there may be uncertainty about which

food item is finally served to the consumer. Furthermore, the lack of refrigeration facilities, sources of running water, personal hygiene, and public toilets may increase the chances forcross-contamination. The cross-contamination of such foods with pathogenic microorganisms could occur during the processing of ready fillings as well as during the preparation of fillings and sandwiches, in vendor’s homes and cars [1–6]. Until now, only one study, in Egypt, on the assessment of foodborne pathogens in street-vended ready-to-eat foods has been done [7]. El-Sherbeeny and his colleagues [7] examined...