The prevalence of Salmonella and Bacillus cereus contamination from pudding and sesame pudding produced by traditional methods in Yazd province of Iran

Sesame pudding has the high fat, low water activity and rich nutrients, which provide good conditions for bacterial contamination. The aim of this research was to study the prevalence of Salmonella and Bacillus cereus contamination from pudding and sesame pudding produced by traditional methods in Yazd Province.
In total, 50 sesame and one hundred traditional made sesame, pudding sample was examined for detection of microbial contamination in particular, Salmonella and Bacillus cereus according to National Standardization Organization )INSO) 2395 and 2695.
Out of 100 tested pudding sesame samples 2 (2%) were positive for Salmonella while none of 50 pudding samples had any Salmonella contamination. In total, 7 (7%) of pudding sesame samples and 4 (8%) of pudding were contaminated with Bacillus cereus respectively. In addition, 50% of pudding and 18% of pudding sesame were contaminated with Enterobacteria. Over all the most contaminated samples belong to the pudding samples of Yazd 16 (57%) and Ardakan 56 (25%). Furthermore, 3 (6%) of pudding samples and 10 (19%) of pudding sesame were contaminated with molds.
ž The results of this research show that bacterial contamination of traditional sesame pudding produced in small workshops was relatively higher than the industrial production. The modification of manual production methods, products with the same taste and desired properties, could reduce the rate of contamination especially Salmonella and testing Salmonella should become as a compulsory standards.