Microbiological and chemical qualities of chicken döner kebab retailed on the Turkish restaurants

Döner kebab is a traditional product and generally produced with beef and/or lamb. In this research, döner kebab was produced with chicken. Because of concerns that chicken döner kebab could allow growth of pathogens during cooking and overnight cooling of leftovers, 72 cooking chicken döner kebabs from 72 establishments were examined chemically and microbiologically. pH, moisture, protein, fat, salt, and collagen contents were measured. This investigation of the microbiology of cooked chicken döner kebab has resulted in the isolation of pathogenic, potentially pathogenic and spoilage organisms. Test undertaken included counts of mesophilic aerobic bacteria, Escherichia coli, coliforms, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, sulphite reducing clostridia, and presence of salmonellae. The mesophilic aerobic bacteria counts were found to be in the range of 1.0 × 102–6.4 × 105 g−1. B. cereus, staphylococci and coliforms counts were less than 102 g−1 for the total of 48%, 50%, and 61% of the samples, respectively. E. coli was found in 31% of the samples ranged between 2.0 × 10 and 5.0 × 102 g−1. Although several samples gave colonies indicating the presence of coagulase-positive staphylococci, representative isolates were not identified as S. aureus. Sulphite reducing clostridia were detected in five samples (7%). Salmonella was not detected from 72 samples of chicken döner kebab.