Hygienic Quality of Vanilla Ice Cream Sold at Local Market

One hundred random Vanilla ice cream samples were collected from retail stores in El-Behera and Alexandria Governorates (Egypt) to assess their hygienic quality. The obtained results revealed that, the mean values of sensory score for examined Vanilla ice cream samples, appearance, colour, odour, taste and texture, were 8.15 ± 0.0929, 7.30 ± 0.940, 8.38 ± 0.021, 7.28 ± 1.358, and 8.51± 0.010, respectively. The results revealed that the average total viable count were 1.12 x 10^5 ± 3.35 x 10^4 cfu /ml. It was found that microbial contamination and proliferation of viable bacteria occurred in 24% of examined Vanilla ice cream samples. The average Coliform count was 4.58 x10^3 ± 1.5 x 10^3 cfu/ml. The presence numbers of Coliforms in examined Vanilla ice cream samples was fairly high ( 10/ml) that could indicate poor hygienic practices during manufacture, post process contamination and unsatisfactory transportation. Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Citrobacter sp. could be isolated and identified from the examined ice cream samples. The average staphylococcus aureus count was 1.10 x 10^3 ± 2.45 x 10^2 cfu/ml, which could be associated with potential food poisoning hazards. The results demonstrated that the raw material used in preparation of ice cream in addition to poor handling of such perishable products may be the reasons of their contamination. It is recommended to launch awareness programs to minimize the contamination of ice cream products.