Investigation of enterotoxins of Staphylococcus aureus in processed meat products (sausage and ham, in Isfahan Province in summer of 2015

Background and Aim: Contamination of food with enterotoxins of Staphylococcus aureus i s a risk factor for public health. Because of lack of inf ormation on the contamination of the processed meat products including sausage and hams with the enterotoxin s of Staphylococcus aureus, the present study was conducted to assess the pres ence of these toxins in the aforementioned products in Iran. Material and Methods: In this cross sectional study, 72 samples of sausage and h am were obtained from product storages of four active meat processing plan ts with different qualitative grades; including A, B, C and D in summer of 2015 in Isfahan Province, Iran. Th e qualitative grading of the meat processing plants was performed on the basis of the "pre requisite programs: PRPs" form approved by Food and Drug Administration of Ministry of Health in Iran. The scores of hygien ic factors including "hygiene of workers", "production and processing", "washing, disinfection, cleaning" and "hazard identif ication and verification" of the aforementioned meat processing plants were determined accor ding t the PRPs form. The meat processing plant with qualitative grades of A, B, C and D had the scores of 924, 825, 754 and 614, respectively. The hygienic grades of meat processing plants were "desirable", based on the PRPs form. The ELISA kite was used to detect the enterotoxins of staphylococcus aureus. Results: The results showed lack of contamination of the processed m at products with enterotoxins of staphylococcus aureus in all sampls obtained from all of the factories with different qualitative grades. Conclusion: The result of the current study show ed that the implementation of suitable designs in relation to the hygienic principles and the continuo us surveillance of food inspectors of the Department of Food and Drug of Isfahan Univer sity of medical sciences could have a positive ro le in prevention of contamination of sausage and hams wit h enterotoxins of Staphylococcus aureus.