Abstract
AbstractGueddid (salty dry meat) and Lben (fermented butter milk) are valued Libyan traditional foods which are mostlyprepared at a household level. A total of 25 samples each of Gueddid and Lben were collected from retailproducers in Tripoli to evaluate their microbial safety. In Gueddid, 40% of samples had total aerobic count(TAC) 66 x 104 ± 73 x 103 CFU/g and Enterococci 52 x 104 ± 86 x 103 CFU/g. 20% of samples werecontaminated with different Staphylococci 33 x 104 ± 58 x 103 CFU/g and 10% of samples containedStaphylococcus aureus 48 x 103 ± 66 x 102 CFU/g. 10% of samples contained Coliform 60 x 103 ± 80 x 102CFU/g. 35% of samples contained yeast 56 x 103 ± 92 x 102 CFU/g. In Lben, all samples showed high TAC 40 x106 ± 81 x 105 CFU/mL and all samples were contaminated with Coliform 69 x 105 ± 10 x 105 CFU/mL. 84% ofsamples contained Enterococci 13 x 106 ± 52 x 104 CFU/mL. 80% of samples had Staphylococci 37 x 105 ± 78 x104 CFU/mL. 40% of samples contained S. aureus 46 x 104 ± 79 x 103 CFU/mL. 92% of samples contained yeast74 x 105 ± 88 x 104 CFU/mL. Gueddid contains low microbial counts and is generally regarded as safe as it isconsumed cooked. Majority of Lben samples contain high microbial load despite of their low pH. More controlmeasures should be adopted for improving fermented food microbial safety