Occurrence of Escherichia coli harbouring stx genes in popiah, a Malaysian street food AbstractIrrespective of its health effects, street foods are very popular with the consumers. The main purpose of this research was to study the biosafety of Escherichia coli in popiah, a Malaysian street food sold at a roadside food stall and a restaurant in Sri Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia, using the combination of the most probable number (MPN)-Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay-plating on Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB) agar methods. Using these biomolecular methods, E. coli was detected in 12/15 (80%) and 11/15 (73%) of the collected samples from the roadside food stall and the restaurant respectively. The incidence of stx virulence-associated genes was detected in 1/15 (7%) among the E. coli isolated from samples taken from the roadside food stall while the E. coli isolated from the restaurant was 3/15 (20%). The density of E. coli ranged from <3 to >1100 MPN/g and the density of E. coli positive with stx genes was <3 to 53 MPN /g in samples from both the roadside food stall and the restaurant. The presence of the stx-positive E. coli in popiah are significant to risk assessments of food and epidemiological studies. Therefore, from the information obtained in this study, it is obvious that the screening for STEC markers in food samples would be useful for food safety survey.

Contamination of drinks with E. coli O157:H7 served in food premises such as restaurants can cause haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic uremic syndrome to humans. The presence or absence of faecal pathogen was demonstrated using coliform group as indicator microorganisms. Therefore, this study was conducted to detect the presence of E. coli O157:H7 in drinking water from food restaurant premise in Kota Samarahan and Kuching to ensure safe and potable drinking water is served to the consumer. A total of thirty (n=30) drink samples including six types of each of the samples are cold plain water, iced tea, iced milo, syrup and iced milk tea. Most Probable Number (MPN) procedure was used in this study to enumerate the MPN values of coliform bacteria in each drink collected. A total of 53.33% (16/30) of the drink samples showed positive E. coli detection. Then, the PCR assay showed 6.25% (one out of 16 isolates) samples were positive and carried stx1 gene produced by E. coli O157:H7 in iced milo sample types. This study showed the drinks collected from food premises was contaminated with faecal contamination, which was not safe to drink by the consumer. Therefore, preventive actions should be taken to prevent foodborne illness outbreak in future