International Journal of Food and Nutritional Science | 2015-07-02

MICROBIOLOGICAL SAFETY ASSESSMENT AND RISK MITIGATION OF DEEP FRIED READY-TO-EAT FOOD (INDIAN ROJAK) IN SINGAPORE

Aung Kyaw Thu

Abstract

Microbiological assessment of Indian Rojak, a popular local dish in Singapore, was conducted to understand possible risk points of its preparation at food retail. In 2009, an outbreak of foodborne illness associated with this dish led to 154 reported cases, including 48 hospitalized and 2 fatalities. Vibrio parahaemolyticus was isolated from the patients. Our study aimed to: evaluate the overall microbial quality of Indian Rojak, assess the effectiveness of the re-heating of the Rojak food items, and identify the key food items that could contribute to the microbial load of the dish. A total of 455 Indian Rojak ingredients from 35 Indian Rojak stalls were sampled and tested. No Salmonella spp., Vibrio cholerae/parahaemolyticus, nor E. coli O157:H7 were recovered from any of the samples tested. Traditional re-heating as practised by food handlers was shown to significantly reduce the overall median SPC in food from 4.5 to 2.7 log CFU/g (p

Keywords: Microbiological quality, risk mitigation, ready-to-eat, foodborne pathogen