Simultaneous Detection of Food-borne Pathogenic Bacteria in Ready-to-eat Kimbab Using Multiplex PCR Method

Abstract

Kimbab is the most popular ready-to-eat (RTE) food in Korea. A rapid detection method based on multiplex PCR technique was developed for detection of major food-borne pathogens like Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Bacillus cereus, Listeria monocytongenes, and Staphylococcus aureus. Specific bands were obtained as 108 bp (Sau, S. aureus), 284 bp (Sal, S. enterica, S. enteritids, and S. typhmurium), 404 bp (Lmo, L. monocytogenes), 475 bp (Bce, B. cereus), and 600 bp (Shi, S. flexineri and S. sonnei). Visible cell numbers varied from 4.14-5.03, 3.61-4.47, and 4.10-5.11 log CFU/g in randomly collected June, July, and August samples, respectively. Among the 30 kimbab samples obtained 83.3% samples were contaminated and 16.7% samples were free from contamination. The highest rate of contamination was with S. aureus (56.7%) followed by B. cereus (43.3%), Salmonella spp. (36.7%), Shigella spp. (13.3%), and L. monocytogenes (6.7%). The identification of the pathogenic species could be faster using one polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and the ability to test for food-borne pathogenic species in kimbab will save time and increase the ability to assure its quality.