Assessment of the microbiological quality of packed spices in the chain stores, Shahrvand,in Tehran in 1386

Beheshti University, M.C., Tehran,Iran



Spices are used all over the world to prepare foods mainly because of their flavoring properties however , these are grown and harvested in warm, humid areas of the world where the growth of a wide variety of microorganisms is readily supported. The aims of the present work were to evaluate the hygienic quality of some spices,in the chain stores of Tehran .

We collected 151 packed samples of three kinds of spices, black pepper, turmeric , cinnamon in the chain stores of Tehran .we investigated to determine their microbial status based on ISIRI.we found these results: average of total aerobic mesophilic count for turmeric was 3/6 × 10⁷ cfu/ gr , black pepper: 7× 10⁶ cfu/gr .cinnamon: 1/92×10⁴ cfu/gr average of coliforms count was: tumeric : 6/26×10³ cfu/gr , black pepper : 8/83×10³ cfu/gr ,cinnamon:4/7×10³ cfu/gr. Feacal coliform tests for 3 kinds of spices were: turmeric 13% , black pepper34% ,cinnamon 6% ,average of yeast and mold count was for turmeric:1/23×10³ cfu/gr, black pepper : 2/94×10³ cfu/gr and cinnamon 2/9×10³ cfu/gr. We compere our results to ISIRI standard and we found that ,some of them were out of standard limit, therefor: it is suggested to provide legislation on the sanitary and hygienic quality of spices in our country.