Bacteriological quality of icecream marketed in Thrissur town, Kerala, India

Aim: To assess the bacteriological quality of ice creams marketed in Thrissur town, Kerala. Materials and Methods: Twenty seven ice cream samples randomly collected from selected retail outlets and street vendors in the town over a period of two months were analyzed for total viable count and for the presence of coliforms, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes. 2 3 Results: Total Viable Count ranged from 1.2 x 10(2) to 8.2 x 10(3) CFU/g in industrial brands whereas in street vendor samples it was high in the range of 5.2 x 10(5) to 6.6 x 10(6) CFU/g. Coliform counts were high in 30 % of the samples. 27 % of the samples had high Staphylococcal count. E coli were isolated from two samples from street vendors and Salmonella spp. from one of the samples. Listeria spp. was not isolated from any of the samples. Conclusion: The presence of potential pathogens in the ice cream samples reveals the significance of implementation of quality control measures in marketing ice creams thus reducing the public health hazards.