Bacterial Enumeration Lab Report
Enumeration of Bacterial Contamination in Hamburger Meat from Unknown Sources
C
March 6, 2012
The importance of bacterial enumeration has become even more apparent in recent years due to the increasing numbers of harmful bacteria found in meat products. This process is the key to understanding the populations of microorganisms that contaminate the food supply. Much of the bacteria in meat has been shown to be resistant to multiple drugs; so disease-causing microbes are becoming an increasing threat to public health. Many studies indicate that this drug resistance may be caused by the large amounts of antibiotics being administered to cows that haven’t been infected. For instance, an increase in tetracycline use has been shown to result in the development of tetracycline-resistant E. coli amongst cows (Sharma et. al., 2008). However, bacterial contamination may also be due to indecent food handling procedure. Although the FDA has strict …show more content…
Unknown A produced a titer of 1.82x106 CFU/gm, the second highest average in the pour plates, followed closely by Unknown B, which had an average of 1.22x106 CFU/gm (Figure 1).
Discussion
It was hypothesized that the amount of bacterial contamination in several samples of meat will have variable assays due to the different methods of meat handling. Using bacterial enumeration, the quantities of bacteria in unknown samples from different sources were counted and averaged after being allowed to grow for one week. Results supported the prediction, as Table 1 shows that the average titers for each unknown hamburger solution varied, with bacterial counts ranging from 1.84x105 CFU/gm to 3.6x107 CFU/gm. Fluctuating averages were found in both the spread plates and pour
C
March 6, 2012
The importance of bacterial enumeration has become even more apparent in recent years due to the increasing numbers of harmful bacteria found in meat products. This process is the key to understanding the populations of microorganisms that contaminate the food supply. Much of the bacteria in meat has been shown to be resistant to multiple drugs; so disease-causing microbes are becoming an increasing threat to public health. Many studies indicate that this drug resistance may be caused by the large amounts of antibiotics being administered to cows that haven’t been infected. For instance, an increase in tetracycline use has been shown to result in the development of tetracycline-resistant E. coli amongst cows (Sharma et. al., 2008). However, bacterial contamination may also be due to indecent food handling procedure. Although the FDA has strict …show more content…
Unknown A produced a titer of 1.82x106 CFU/gm, the second highest average in the pour plates, followed closely by Unknown B, which had an average of 1.22x106 CFU/gm (Figure 1).
Discussion
It was hypothesized that the amount of bacterial contamination in several samples of meat will have variable assays due to the different methods of meat handling. Using bacterial enumeration, the quantities of bacteria in unknown samples from different sources were counted and averaged after being allowed to grow for one week. Results supported the prediction, as Table 1 shows that the average titers for each unknown hamburger solution varied, with bacterial counts ranging from 1.84x105 CFU/gm to 3.6x107 CFU/gm. Fluctuating averages were found in both the spread plates and pour