Salad is a commonly consumed raw food which is equally favored by each group of the society. The consumption of these salads among common man has been increased in recent past. Several outbreaks have been reported throughout the world regarding to GIT tract infections and isolation of thermotolerent FC. Coliforms or especially Fecal coliforms are considered indicator organism whose absence ensures the lack of non pathogenic bacteria.
The objectives of the present study was to evaluate the sanitary condition followed by food practitioners in Lahore area and the effect of natural salad dressings with respect to varing concentrations of NSDs, at different temperature and interval of exposure.
A total of 60 samples were purchased from local market, 12 of the samples were collected from each selected area (i.e. Anarkali, Gawalmandi, Samanabad, Sanat Nagar and Shad Bagh) while the sample purchased from each area is from 4 different shops (3 from each) i.e. Burgar salad, Gravey Chana salad, Halwa Puri salad and Bar-B-Q salad shops.
The samples were transported to UDL, UVAS, Lahore under cooled chain and subjected for analysis to enumerate the quality by estimating FC using MPN method (FDA 2010). Samples are divided into 4 sections. One was taken as control and the others were taken as experimental and subjected to various concentrations of NSD's, after exposing to 5, 15 and 30min to antimicrobial agents the samples are transmitted to triplet of test tubes containing EC broth. The inoculated tubes were provided with 24-48 hours incubation at 44.5oC.
The gas production in tubes indicted the presence of FC, so values were calculated using MPN table (Annexure XXV) and log values were written to get log reduction values.
More than 70% salad samples collected from selected areas were found unhealthy for consumption. Maximum contamination was observed in salads which are being served with night meals (i.e BBQ salad) while Anarkali was found an area with maximum of positive samples. The contaminations were least recorded in winters while maximum in rainy season. Among the NSD's Vinegar was considered best antimicrobial agent followed by Lemon and Garlic but statistically no significant difference between these two were observed. There was no significant relationship observed between temperature-time, concentration-time and temperature-concentration of NSD.