Assessment of the microbiological quality of packed spices in the chain stores, Shahrvand,in Tehran in 1386

Spices are used all over the world to prepare foods mainly because of their flavoring properties however, these are grown and harvested in warm, humid areas of the world where the growth of a wide variety of microorganisms is readily supported. The aims of the present work were to evaluate the hygienic quality of some spices,in the chain stores of Tehran. We collected 151 packed samples of three kinds of spices, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon in the chain stores of Tehran. we investigated to determine their microbial status based on ISIRI.we found these average of total aerobic mesophilic count for turmeric was 3/6 × 107 cfu/ gr, black pepper: 7× 106 cfu/gr. cinnamon: 1/92×104 cfu/gr average of coliforms count was: tumeric: 6/26×103 cfu/gr, black pepper: 8/83×103 cfu/gr, cinnamon:4/7×103 cfu/gr. Feacal coliform tests for 3 kinds of spices were: turmeric 13%, black pepper34%, cinnamon 6%, average of yeast and mold count was for turmeric:1/23×103 cfu/gr, black pepper: 2/94×103 cfu/gr and cinnamon 2/9×103 cfu/gr. We compere our results to ISIRI standard and we found that, some of them were out of standard limit, therefor: it is suggested to provide legislation on the sanitary and hygienic quality of spices in our country.