Backgrounds and Objective: Juice drinks have high nutritional value, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals which are widely consumed due to therapeutic properties. The aim of this study was to survey the bacteriological quality of juices in Shahrood city.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was done in the spring and summer seasons of 2014-2015, on juices sold in the Shahrood city study. A self-report questionnaire confirmed by the ministry of health, with certain modifications (as needed), was applied to determine the bacteriological quality of juices and the relationship between food safety knowledge and practices of vendors. In this study, all juice shops (9 units) were considered and the research was carried out by visiting and completing the questionnaires. In order to determine the bacteriological quality of fruit juices, sampling was done from juice shops. The samples the assessed for the presence of Staphylococcus, E. coli, total coliform, yeast and mold counts by using standard methods. The results were compared with the standards of the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran. Then, obtained data were analyzed by Excel and SPSS software.
Result: About 16.12 % of the samples contaminated to Staphylococcus aureus, 22.58% to Escherichia coli, 12.9% to total coliform, 38.7% to yeast and 9.67% to mold. Also, a significant correlation between parameters such as level of literacy (Education) of vendors, amount of sales, site and refrigerator hygiene, personal hygiene, food hygiene, and sanitation was existed (P ≤ 0.001).
Conclusion: The results showed that all biological parameters were higher than the standard level, which was due to the lack of principles and rules of personal hygiene, food hygiene and sanitation. Hence, management, monitoring and purposeful education was much more needed for food safety supervision and training to prevent contamination of food with pathogenic agents, and greater emphasis on compliance with regulations is Article 13.