The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices among food handlers at residential colleges and canteen in the main campus of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia regarding the aspect of food hygiene and safety. Sixty five food handlers from two residential colleges’ cafeterias and one Faculty of Science and Technology’s canteen were involved in the study. The data were collected from the food handlers through the methods of questionnaire and analyzed using the SPSS version 12.0. In general, the respondents’ knowledge was moderate with mean point of 57.8%. However, they have good knowledge on personal hygiene and definition of foodborne diseases with mean point of 93.85% and 73.85%, respectively. On the contrary, their knowledge on food storage and preparation temperatures was poor with only 28%. Respondents showed positive attitudes towards two categories of questions in the aspect of food safety and hygiene (76.9%); foodborne prevention and control (70.8%). Majority of the respondents have an average practices in all parts of the questions. Analysis tests showed significant difference (p<0.05) between the relationship of respondents’ knowledge with their working experiences (p=0.008), attitudes with training attended (p=0.006) and practices with gender (p=0.032). There was significant difference for knowledge based on cafeteria (p=0.000). In conclusion, amongst the three levels, respondents showed only good attitudes in food handling and all the cafeterias in this survey need to increase the hygiene level of their food handlers’ hand and environment of the premises.
This study was carried out to detect and identify the presence of Enterobacteriaceae, and Cronobacter sakazakii, and determine the microbial population of infant formula products obtained from hypermarkets and a private hospital in Malaysia. Sixteen infant formulas and 14 special infant formulas from eight manufacturers were tested. Enterobacter cloacae, E. asburiae, Klebsiella pneumoniae spp. pneumoniae, K. planticola and Pantoea sp., 3 were confirmed present in five samples using ID 32E biochemical test (Biomerieux). C. sakazakii was not detected in any of the infant formulas tested. Five samples failed to comply with the microbiological criterion for aerobic plate count. The infant formula and special infant formula samples with different ingredients and nutrient composition did not show any significant difference in terms of aerobic plate count. Although one of the samples contained probiotic, the high microbial count for the other samples could have been contributed by the above identified Enterobacteriaceae since the infant formula samples non-sterile and contamination could have occurred during milk production and/ or milk preparation. It is imperative to prepare the infant formula milk samples according to the manufacturer’s instruction and in an aseptic condition.
Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengesahkan kemampuan teknologi DNA mikroaturan cip gen OliproTM FoodPATH bagi mengesan bakteria patogen makanan. Sebanyak 9 jenis DNA bakteria patogen makanan telah digunakan iaitu Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Staphylococcus aureus, Vibrio cholerae, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp. dan Campylobacter spp. Sebanyak 36 kombinasi templat DNA bakteria patogen makanan telah digunakan. Pengesahan bagi mengesan bakteria patogen makanan dilakukan dengan menggunakan kaedah reaksi berantai polimerase (PCR) dan penghibridan Southern-blotting di atas cip gen untuk mengesahkan kemampuannya. Keputusan daripada analisis hibridasi di atas cip gen telah dibandingkan dengan hasil gel elektroforesis 2.0% (w/v). Lima saringan diperlukan untuk menghabiskan 36 kombinasi templat DNA bakteria patogen makanan. Setiap saringan, satu cip gen telah digunakan sebagai kawalan negatif tidak diinokulasikan dengan sebarang kombinasi DNA bakteria patogen makanan. Daripada hasil kajian, didapati bahawa semua kombinasi templat DNA bakteria patogen makanan telah dapat dikesan. Cip yang digunakan sebagai kawalan negatif tidak menunjukkan kehadiran DNA. Oleh itu, daripada kajian ini cip gen OliproTM FoodPATH didapati memberikan keputusan yang lebih baik berbanding dengan 2.0% (w/v) gel elektroforesis.
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk memilih kaedah terbaik daripada sebelas kaedah pengiraan Escherichia coli dalam masakan ayam. Kaedah-kaedah tersebut adalah piring curahan, piring sebaran, piring titisan, PetrifilmTM, tiga jenis pemiringan terus dan empat jenis kaedah bilangan paling mungkin (MPN). Perbandingan kaedah dijalankan mengikut prosedur ISO 16140. Setiap strain E. coli (ATCC 25922, IMR 1/3 107B dan IMR E243) telah diinokulasikan ke dalam lima jenis masakan ayam bagi mendapatkan kepekatan bakteria sehingga 105 cfu/g. Perlakuan haba dibuat pada 55oC selama
4-6 min bagi mewujudkan persekitaran yang seakan-akan sama seperti makanan tersebut dihidangkan sebaik sahaja selepas dimasak. Analisis statistik Regressi Kaedah Kuasa Dua Terkecil (KKDT) dijalankan bagi membandingkan sebelas kaedah pengiraan E. coli. Nilai kecerunan (m) yang signifikan (p < 0.05) pada kesemua Graf KKDT membawa maksud kesemua kaedah adalah serupa daripada segi kejituan, korelasi, dan ketepatan relatif. Oleh itu, penilaian praktikal turut dipertimbangkan bagi menentukan tiga kaedah terbaik bagi pengiraan E. coli dalam masakan ayam. Piring curahan, PetrifilmTM dan piring titisan adalah lebih praktikal berbanding lapan kaedah yang lain.
Ultra-high temperature is a process that involves heating of milk to a very high temperature to produce sterile milk products.
However, food poisoning due to consumption of UHT milk still happen in Malaysia. This study was done to develop a
film that is made by poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA) to detect the presence of microorganisms in UHT milk products. UHT milk
that was used in this study was full cream milk. Contaminated milk that contained Bacillus cereus was made to conduct
a model system on the relationship between colony forming unit of microorganisms and contact angle. Contaminated
milk was also used as a control sample to study the difference of milk properties between fresh and contaminated milk.
Physicochemical analysis (Brix, colour, pH and contact angle) and microbiological analysis (total plate count) were
done to UHT milk sample as soon as the packaging of the milk was unsealed. Analysis was done with 30 min time interval
until 4 h and 30 min since the unsealing of packaging. The results showed that presence of microorganisms in UHT milk
was detected after the milk product was unsealed and exposed to environment for 3 h and 30 min. Contact angle resulted
from the presence of microorganisms in UHT milk was 64.34 - 65.44° with its colony forming unit, 2.1 – 3.9 cfu/mL.
Therefore, the potential usage of contact angle on PLLA thin film with respect to colony forming unit (cfu) in detecting
the presence of microorganisms in UHT milk product was attained and well modelled.
Genomic DNA of 13 fish (n=13) species consist of four freshwater which were catfish (Clarias gariepinus), shark catfish (Pangasius larnaudii), tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus), perch (Lates calcarifer) and nine marine species which were black pomfret (Parastromateus niger), anchovy (Stolephorus commersonii), mabong (Rastrelliger kanagurta), red snapper (Lutjanus erythropterus), herring (Chirocentrus dorab), ray fish (Himantura gerrardii), sardine (Decapterus macrosoma), mackerel (Euthynnus affinis) and tuna (Thunnus tuna) were differentiated using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Seven endonucleases of AluI, BsaJI, HaeIII, HindIII, HinfI, MboI and MboII were examined for the ability to digest cyt b amplicon from each species. Genomic DNA of pork (Sus scrofa domestica) were differentiated from fishes by comparing the digestion patterns produced by similar amplified region and enzymes used. In the present study, it was demonstrated that fishes and pork DNA genome were successfully differentiated using all endonucleases except for HindIII. Thus, PCR-RFLP analysis was found useful for future pork DNA detection in fish products.
Enterobacter sakazakii previously known as 'yellow-pigmented E. cloacae' has been classified as a new genus 'Cronobacter' based on taxonomic analysis and geno-and phenotypic evaluation. This pathogenic organism has been associated with rare form of infant meningitis and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) with high mortality rate (40-80%). Some cases have been linked to the consumption of contaminated powdered infant formula milk (PIF). The objective of this study was to determine the presence of Cronobacter spp. in PIF sold in Malaysia. A selective chromogenic agar, Brilliance Enterobacter sakazakii (DFI, Oxoid), was used for detection of Cronobacter strains. Presumptive Cronobacter isolates were identified using biochemical tests (API 20E and MicrogenTM) and molecular assays (SYBR Green Real-time PCR and 16S ribosomal DNA sequencing). All presumptive Cronobacter strains produced typical blue-green colonies and non-Cronobacter strains produced yellow colonies on Brilliance Enterobacter sakazakii agar (DFI formulation). A total of 12 presumptive isolates were selected from DFI agar and identified with biochemical and molecular tests. The results indicated prevalence of 12.5% C. sakazakii contamination from 72 PIF samples. Molecular detection methods such as Real-time PCR and 16S rDNA proved to have higher identification percentage compared to the biochemical tests. In this study, it was observed that molecular assays were suitable means for sensitive identification of Cronobacter strains in PIF samples.
Pacifier nipples are in permanent contact with saliva and with the oral microflora therefore, act as a favoured site for the growth of biofilms. This research was conducted to identify the bacterial biofilms that has been found on the pacifiers that collected from local child nursery and to analyse the formation of biofilms by Cronobacter sp. during growth in infant formula milk. Pacifiers collected were analysed to obtain colony forming unit (CFU) and isolated bacteria were identified using several biochemical tests according to Bergey's Manual. Biofilm assay of three Cronobacter sp. were conducted using 24 wells microtiter plate and stained with 1% of crystal violet solution at different time interval: 6, 12, 18 and 24 h. The hydrophobicity of the bacterial cell suspension was evaluated using bacterial adhesion to hydrocarbons (BATH) method. Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) analysis was done to identify percentage of carbohydrate and protein content by using phenol sulphuric acid method and Bradford method, respectively. The results obtained showed that the normal microflora bacteria were the most abundant microorganisms that were found on the pacifier with the main genus isolated was Staphylococcus sp., Enterobacteriaceae sp. and Clostridium sp. Based on biofilm and EPS analysis, Cronobacter sakazakii formed a strong biofilms after 18 h, with carbohydrate was identified as main component of EPS.
A method of PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) has been utilized to differentiate the mitochondrial genes of pork and wild boar meat (Sus scrofa). The amplification PCR products of 359 bp and 531 bp were successfully amplified from the cyt b gene of these two meats. The amplification product of pork and wild boar using mt-12S rRNA gene successfully produced a single band with molecular size of 456 bp. Three restriction endonucleases (AluI, HindIII and BsaJI) were used to restrict the amplification products of the mitochondrial genes. The restriction enzymes of AluI and BsaJI were identified as potential restriction endonucleases to differentiate those meats. HindIII enzyme was unable to restrict the PCR product of both meats. The genetic differences within the cyt b gene among the two meats were successfully confirmed by PCR-RFLP analysis.