Maintenance of Microbiological Quality of Ready to Eat Foods

Most of the ready-to-eat foods are prepared and sold by street vendors but these do not meet microbiological standards set by regulatory bodies. Different regulatory bodies take the samples randomly from the markets and send them for microbiological analysis. However, the sampling procedure should be in accordance with specifications set by the governing bodies. Therefore, certain guidelines have been set by these bodies covering sampling procedures and microbiological count for ready-to-eat foods have been set against which microbial quality of ready-to-eat foods is assessed. In this review, a brief introduction to ready-to-eat (RTE) foods, some microbiological tests and guidelines and some studies have been discussed.