Assessment of Arcobacter contamination in grilled meat, ready-to-eat salads, raw milk and drinking water in Yasouj City

Arcobacter is Gram-negative bacteria without curved spores, distinguished from Campylobacter by growth in the presence of oxygen and low temperatures. This study evaluates Arcobacter contamination in grilled meat, ready-to-eat salads, raw milk, and water in Yasouj City. In this study, 120 samples, including 30 grilled meat samples, 30 ready-to-eat salad samples, 30 raw milk samples, and 30 drinking water samples, were randomly collected from different parts of Yasouj City and transferred to the quality control laboratory of Shahrekord Islamic Azad University. The samples were tested according to the standard method. P<0.05 was considered a significant level in the present study. The results showed that out of 120 food samples tested, 22 were contaminated with Arcobacter. There was no significant relationship between the sampled foods and the level of Arcobacter contamination. According to the results, the drinking water contamination was zero, grilled meat was 13, salad was 1, and raw milk was 8. In total, 22 out of 120 samples were infected with Arcobacter. Considering the contamination of 18/33% in all the samples of this study and the possibility of contamination to humans and causing complications such as gastroenteritis, as well as the high consumption of meat, especially grilled meat, in roadside restaurants, it seems necessary to take measures to control this contamination. Bacteria from the production cycle to the consumption of meat, salad, raw milk, cooking meat, and boiling milk before consumption must be done carefully.