Iranian Journal of

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Background and Objectives:

In many countries, there is a popular belief that the simultaneous

handling of food and money contributes to the incidence of food-related public health incidents.

The objective of this study was to determine the total bacterial count and the presence of food borne

bacterial pathogens on Iranian currency notes, collected from food-related shops.

Materials and Methods: A total of 120 Iranian currency notes, comprising notes in four  denomination (2000, 5000, 10000 and 20000 R) were collected from various food-related shops including, butchery, bakery, confectionary, fast food, ice cream and poultry meat shop. The currency notes were categorized into three groups according to their physical conditions. All currency notes were examined for total bacterial count, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella and Listeria according to the standard techniques.
Results: The average number of total bacterial count in four denomination of currency notes (2000,  5000, 10000 and 20000 R) were 118.49, 106.32, 69.44 and 220.81 CFU/cm2, respectively. The association between total bacterial count and denomination of the currency was not statistically significant. Of the 120 currency notes on which bacteriological analysis was conducted 13.3 %, 32.5% and 10.8 % were contaminated with E. coli, S. aureus and B. cereus, respectively. Salmonella and Listeria were not isolated from samples. Currency notes collected from butchery, bakery, confectionary, fast food, ice cream and poultry meat shop were contaminated with E. coli at the rate of 60, 0, 5, 5, 0 and 10 % with S. aureus at the rate of 55, 30, 10, 25, 40 and 35 % with B. cereus at the rate of 0, 10, 20, 5, 20 and 10 %, respectively. There was not a statistically significant association between physical condition and bacterial contamination of the currency notes. The effect of presence or absence of cashier in food-related shops on bacterial contamination of the currency notes was also evaluated.
Conclusion: Money has got the potential to change through many different hands and could be  exposed to many different environments at a relatively high frequency. Since there is very little information regarding the hygienic history of any forms of currency, great care should be taken when the same person facilitates the handling of money and the preparation and handling of food to avoid cross contamination.

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Background and Objective: Milk and milk products are very suitable medium for growing microorganisms (e.g. Bacillus cereus). B. cereus is spore former bacilli, which easily survives during pasteurization and makes several problems in dairy industries. The aim of this study was to investigate aerobic spore and B. cereus of receiving raw milk from three UF plants. Materials and Methods: Samples were gathered from raw milk transport tankers arrived to plants during 30 days in winter. Also, the swab test was used for detection of B.cereus residual on milk contact surfaces. Results: High contamination level of aerobic spores (AeSC) and especially B.cereus were found in most samples compared with the criteria established by national and international standards. Although total viable count (TVC) in samples from industrial farms (IF) was lower than those from traditional farms (TFs) and milk collection centers (MCCs), considerable AeSC and B.cereus were transmitted to the UF plants from IFs. The highest and lowest TVC and B.cereus were found in samples from IFs and MCCs, respectively. In addition, our investigation in IFs revealed that teats contamination to soil and feces, as well as contaminated bedding might were the most important sources of B. cereus and AeSC of raw milk. Moreover, the results of swab tests confirmed that the “cleaning in place” system may not remove B.cereus effectively. Conclusion: It seems that for classifying raw milk quality, AeSC might be used as a more effective quality factor than TVC. Management commitment is effective to improve quality by balance between the amount and quality of receiving raw milk. This leads to the lower contamination in dairy plants and final products.