DIVYA VERMA* AND MONICA AGRAWAL
Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the occurrence of Escherichia coli in frozen food stuffs sold in market of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. Total 133 samples of frozen foods i.e., frozen peas, beans frozen cut vegetables, frozen snacks, frozen corn and frozen cottage cheese etc. were collected. After pre-enrichment, the selective isolation for E. coli was performed on Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB) agar plates. In total, 17% frozen samples were found contaminated with E. coli. The presence of E. coli was confirmed by presence of green metallic sheen on EMB agar and presence of Gram-negative bacilli under microscope and other biochemical tests. Our study shows that frozen foods may predominantly harbor E. coli as pathogenic bacteria, although other pathogenic bacteria may also be present.