Āsīb/shināsī-i Darmāngāhī-i Dāmpizishkī (Aug 2009)
Investigation on the hygienic quality of natural mineral waters sold in the city of Tabriz in 2008
Abstract
With the significant increase in bottled natural mineral water production and consumption over the last decade in our country, there has been a growing concern over the microbiological quality of such products. The purpose of the present study was to analyze various bottled natural mineral waters sold in Tabriz. In this study, 150 samples of such products were examined for aerobic colony count, coliforms, fecal coliforms, Escherichia coli, fecal streptococci, Clostridium perfringenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Aerobic colony count pseudomonas and clostridium were determined using membrane filtration method and most probable number (MPN) method was used for determining coliforms and fecal streptococci. The results indicated that in 25.3% of the samples there was no microbial growth in plate count agar media and 2% of the samples were contaminated with high levels of aerobic colony count (more than 20 bacteria/ ml). Furthermore, of the 72.6% of samples with acceptable aerobic colony count, 2.75%, 1.83%, 2.75% and 0.91% were contaminated with coliforms, fecal streptococci, pseudomonas and clostridium respectively.
