The present investigation was done to study the prevalence and antibiotic resistance properties of S. aureus strains isolated from hospitals foods. Four‐hundred and fifty‐seven raw and cooked hospital food samples were collected and transferred to laboratory. Samples were cultured and S. aureus isolates were subjected to disk diffusion method. Forty‐seven out of 457 (10.28%) hospital food samples harbored S. aureus. Chicken meat (27.02%), meat barbecue (16.12%) and salad (7.14%) were the most commonly contaminated samples. S. aureus strains exhibited the highest levels of resistance against penicillin (70.21%), tetracycline (59.57%) and trimethoprim‐sulfamethoxazole (51.06%). Prevalence of resistance against ceftaroline (25.53%) and chloramphenicol (27.65%) were low. High prevalence of S. aureus in raw and cooked hospital food samples showed insufficiency of cooking time and temperature in the kitchens of hospitals as well as lack of personal hygiene. Further studies are essential to assess other microbiological and epidemiological aspects of the S. aureus.
Practical applications
Due to the general weakness of hospitalized patients, hospital food samples should have a high microbial quality. Staphylococcus aureus is common foodborne bacteria with an emergence of antibiotic resistance. This study emphasizes the importance of multidrug resistant S. aureus in hospital food sample. Results represented that hospital food samples may act as a reservoir of S. aureus with ability to transfer antibiotic resistance.
FoodWorld 