Antibiotic Resistance and Pathogenic Potential of Escherichia coli Isolated from Food Contact Surfaces of a Commercial Kitchen

Food safety in the restaurant is very important to safeguard the health of consumers which in turn will contribute to economic development of coun-tries by fostering tourism. The objective of the study was to understand the prevalence of antibiotic resistance, genes coding for antibiotic resistance and virulence genes among E. coli isolated from various food contact surfaces of a commercial kitchen. A total of 15 E. coli were isolated from a commercial kitchen. The E. coli isolates were resistant to cefpodoxime (75 %) and nitrofurantoin (50 %) followed by ampicillin (43 %). Multiple antibiotic resistance indexes of the isolates ranged from 0.6 to 0.93. Out of the total isolates, 46.6 % carried blaTEM genes and 20% carried blaCTX-M genes. The virulence gene hly-A eae and stx1 were detected in 40 % of the isolates, while stx2 genes was not detected in these isolates. In conclusion, the presence of antibiotic resistant pathogenic E. coli isolates in food contact surfaces of the commercial kitchen is a cause of concern since there is a possibility of cross contamination to the food items, thereby posing health risk to the consumer.