Bacteriological Survey for Food/Food Contacting Surfaces in Large Grocery Stores in Korea

A bacteriological survey for 20 large grocery stores (M 1 to M20) in Korea was investigated for one year. The average detection rate of Esherichia coli was $22\%$ (166/763) for 7 kinds of ready-to-eat food through the year, where each grocery store and each type of food showed different detection rates. Eleven grocery stores showed lower detection rates, while 9 grocery stores showed a higher than average rate. Especially, M3 showed a rate that was twice as high as the average and one which was 7 times higher than M14, which had the lowest rate of $6\%$ E. coli detection. The detection rate for each type of food was: $38\%$ (41/109) for Kimbop, $31\%$ (34/109) for vegetable salad, $19\%$ (21/109) for bean-curd, $18\%$ (20/109) for the cooked materials used in making Kimbop, $17\%$ (19/109) for Hoe (sliced raw fish) and Sushi (Japanese vinegared rice delicacies), and $11\%$ (12/109) for cooked pork hock. During the summer, the E. coli detection rate averaged $43\%$ (71/166), which was twice as high as other seasons. Most (89/100) of the food contacting surfaces contained more than the critical limit $(1.3\;log_{10}\;CFU/10cm^2)$ of aerobic viable cell counts (AVC). The $log_{10}$ AVC and $log_{10}$ coliform count (CC) of 218 meat samples (beef, pork, and chicken) ranged between 4.6-7.1 CFU/g and 1.9-6.4 CFU/g, except for 41 meat samples $(19\%)$ which were found to contain no coliform. There was a definite correlation between the $log_{10}$ AVC and $log_{10}$ CC, and the values of $log_{10}$ CC made a more accurate straight than the $log_{10}$ AVC, which are variable. From these results, it is suggested that a detection rating of less than 2.1 CFU/g of $log_{10}$ CC (correspond to 5.0 CFU/g of $log_{10}$ AVC) is the critical point of freshness, and a rating of more than 6.3 CFU/g of $log_{10}$ CC (correspond to 7.0 CFU/g of $log_{10}$ AVC) can be considered an initial spoilage point.