Investigating of the bacteriological contamination in traditionally manufactured ice creams in Urmia city

Ice cream is a popular dairy product especially in warm seasons. Due to its lengthy shelf life, it is considered as one of the potentially high-risk foods in transmission of food-borne pathogens. The aim of this study was to evaluate the bacterial contamination of ice cream in Urmia city. To achieve this goal, Urmia city was divided into four regions based on scattering of the ice cream retailers. Afterwards, 144 samples were purchased from traditional retails using cluster sampling method. Bacterial contamination of the samples was analyzed according to the procedures of the Iranian National Standards. Based on the results, 78% of the samples contained the load of contamination higher than 4.2 × 107 CFU/g. Moreover, 82.9% of the samples were contaminated with more than 10 CFU of Enterobacteriaceae per gram. Results also revealed that 52.2% and 2.8% of the samples were contaminated with E. coli and coagulase positive Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. Salmonella was not detected in any of the samples. High microbial contaminations in traditional ice creams represent non-hygienic practices at different stages of production.