Detection of coagulase positive staphylococci in meat products sold in Alexandria using two different media.

Microbiological examination of 200 meat products collected from 30 supermarkets in Alexandria revealed that CHROMagar Staph aureus yielded higher counts than Baird Parker medium that were significant in all examined products except sausage. The prevalence of coagulase positive staphylococci was 4%, moreover, CHROMagar Staph aureus showed higher recovery rate and specificity (87.5% and 98.9%; respectively) than Baird Parker medium (50.0% and 15.6%; respectively) during their detection. Sanitary evaluation of the supermarkets revealed that all of them were acceptable regarding prevention of bacterial growth parameter, although their mean score was only 55%. Avoidance of contamination parameter had the lowest mean score percent (15.6 +/- 27.3) with only about seven percent of the inspected supermarkets being acceptable. Although all recruited food handlers were apparently healthy, in few supermarkets, handlers were wearing clean light colored uniform (6.7%) and gloves (3.3%). Despite the presence of hand washing basins in all supermarkets, few of them were provided with hot water (6.7%) and detergents were available in 30% of them. Improvement of the sanitary conditions under which meat products are handled in the supermarkets is a must, also, improving the selectivity of CHROMagar Staph aureus in addition to both specificity and recovery rates of Baird Parker medium is recommended.