34 chicken or soto daging beef. Both forms served with santen coconut cream or
bening clearplain. Soto os a soup type of dish where pieces of chicken or meat are put
in liquid containing coconut cream or water with added flavor from selected spices, sauces, and vegetables. Outlet served sweetenedunsweetened tea upon order and also
sold fruit and jelly mixture locally called es campur.
3.5 Sampling method 3.5.1 Collecting sample
Samples were collected using sterile glass bottles for utensils washing water samples, and sterile swabs for collecting tea towels, food preparation tables and hands of
food handlers samples. Collecting samples took less than 1 hour each day as the RTE food outlets were located within walking distance from the laboratory where analysis
were carried out. All sterile items, including sterile Lactose broth media for Salmonella were put in two clean and sterile ice boxes eskies.
Figure 4. Ice boxes for sampling
. All sampling were done aseptically and done during lunch hours from 11:00am
to 13:00pm when the RTE food outlets were seen to be at their busiest moments.
3.5.2 Swabbing technique
Swabbing was done to about 100cm
2
surface area of the food contact surfaces food preparation tables, tea towels and hands of food handlers using moist cotton
swabs. According to AS 4696; 2007, swabbing of greater than 100cm
2
would get the swabs overloaded, therefore swab are recommended to sample area sizes 100cm
2
.
3.5.1.1 Utensils’ washing water
Water samples were collected aseptically in sterile glass jars with lids according to Harrigan and McCance 1976. Collecting water samples was done quite differently
for outlet III to outlets I and II. Both outlets I and II had washing troughsbuckets keeping the washing water whilst in outlet III, running water was used.
35 The manner in which the water samples were collected was influenced by how
the washing water was kept. In outlets I and II, the sterile glass jars were dipped into the water after the water was stirred by shaking the troughbucket, ensuring that hand of the
sampler didn t touch the water to avoid contamination. Means of using a container to fetch the water to fill the jars was also decided against with the same reason to avoiding
contamination. In outlet III, running tap water was used therefore the glass jar was held below the running tap to collect the water sample.
3.5.1.2 Tea towels
Sampling of tea towels is usually done by rinsing technique. In this research, the tea towels were placed on sanitized and alcohol sterilized flat surface and moist cotton
swabs were used to collect microbial samples from top side of the tea towels. The cotton swabs after covering the required surface area 10cm x 10cm were then broken off from
the tail and placed into 10mls of diluents containing sterile bottles, for coliform samples. For Salmonella samples, the broken off swab heads were placed into 225ml lactose
broth media. The same tea towels were sampled for the three repeats from the three RTE food
outlets. Swabs of 1.0 1.5cm thick and 3.5 4.0cm length were used to take the sample from one side of the tea towel.
Figure 5. Diagram for swabbing action. 3.5.1.3 Food preparation tables
Food preparation tables sampling was done by swabbing technique using moist cotton swabs of 1.0 1.5cm thick and 3.5 4.0cm length of a defined area of 10cm x
10cm for all three RTE food outlets. All the used swabs were carefully placed into 10ml of diluent contained in sterile bottles after having the handles broken off for coliforms;
36 for Salmonella samples, the broken off swab heads were placed into 225ml lactose broth
media.
3.5.1.4 Hands of food handlers
