VIJAY SINGH CHHETRI AND TIKA BAHADUR KARKI
Abstract
The incidence of Clostridium perfringens and their spores was examined in raw meat and poultry, ready to eat meat items and meat spices, collected from the retail market of Kathmandu city for the first time. Among the examined samples, 80.80% of chicken, 87.75% of buffalo meat and 72% of meat spices were positive for the spore. The highest spores count was 5.14×103 CFU/g in raw buffalo meat, 2.7×103 CFU/g in chicken sample and 3.0×103 CFU/g in meat spices. In ready to eat products, 69.23% of chhoyela, 88.23% of sausages, 100% of kachila samples were positive for vegetative cells, and the count of 5% samples was more than 106 CFU/g. The spore outgrowth was reduced by 0.36%, 1.1%, 2.58%, 4.0%, 18.45% and 37.26% at sodium chloride concentration of 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5% and 3 % respectively. No outgrowth was observed at and above 3.5% sodium chloride. The rate of spore outgrowth reduced with declining pH. At pH of 5.2 and below, no outgrowth was observed up to 48 hours.