A Study of Some Microbial and Chemical Contaminants in Packaged Mortadella Available in the Local Markets

Meat is one of the important sources of protein, as it is one of the basic nutrients that the body needs, and a lack of protein in the body can lead to malnutrition. Despite the importance of meat, it is also necessary to conduct studies to identify its contents of pollutants, whether microbial or chemical, to ensure safety In general, foodborne diseases are a major health problem facing not only the patient at risk, but also physicians, epidemiologists, food inspectors and laboratory microbiologists. The researchers studied the quality of imported beef mortadella rolls by collecting ten samples from local markets in The city of Baghdad and analyzed it microbiologically, and found that the levels of the total number of aerobic bacteria for samples of imported beef mortadella roll ranged between (1× 102-2.5× 106) CFU/g, while the level of the total number of coliform bacteria in the study samples was (1×101- 5× 104) CFU/g ,the levels of numbers of Staphylococcus spp. bacteria ranged from (1× 101 - 2.4× 103) CFU/g,some study samples varied in the total count of yeasts and molds (1× 102- 2.5× 103) CFU/g ,with significant differences P≤0.05, and all study samples were empty from Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli O104:H4, the results of this study showed the presence of metals Lead, Pb, and Cadmium, Cd, in all tested samples, at varying concentrations. The highest concentration of Lead was 0.0624 mg/kg and the lowest was 0.0371 mg/kg with significant differences P≤0.05, while the lowest concentration of Cadmium was 0.0102 mg/kg and the highest concentration of the same element was 0.0189 mg/kg.