The ready-to-eat meat sandwiches of Meat dinner (shawerma), Sausages, Fried liver pieces and Minced meat with onion are of the most popular food in Assiut city, Egypt. These kinds of food may be contaminated by bacteria, fungi and heavy metals which cause many bad effects on the consumer health. In this study, different samples of these meat products were purchased from different restaurants. The concentration of heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni and Cd) in these samples were determined and compared with the permissible limits in Egypt and those recommended internationally. Elemental Nickel and Cadmium were not detected in any of the four meat products investigated. Copper ranged from 1.28-1.64 mg kg-1 in meat dinner, sausages and minced meat with onion which is within the permissible limit internationally and in Egypt. However in fried liver, the level of copper was higher (46.91 mg kg-1) than that of the permissible limit. Zinc concentration ranged from 13.13-33.42 mg kg-1 in the four meat products investigated and this concentration was within the permissible limit recommended internationally. Unfortunately lead concentration ranged between (1.04-1.24 mg kg-1) which is much higher than the recommendel level in Egypt (0.5 mg kg-1) and internationally (0.05 mg kg-1). Speices of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, Proteus and Escherichia were isolated from the four meat products investigated. Of fungi species of Aspergillus, Penicillium and white-coloured yeasts were recorded from all products. Other fungi were reported only from sausage (Acremonim roseum and Cladosporium cladosporioides) or from fried liver pieces (Stachybotrys chartarum). The public health implications of these findings are discussed.

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