Bacteriological safety of artisanal ice creams in the city of Caaguazú during the period from June to July 2023

Abstract

Ice cream is a food product of mass consumption by both adults and children, in addition to being a susceptible medium for the growth of microorganisms such as total coliforms and fecal coliforms, which are a group of bacteria called contamination indicator microorganisms, where the presence of these determines if a food is contaminated and thus evaluate the bacteriological safety of food. Therefore, this research evaluates the bacteriological safety of artisanal ice cream made in the City of Caaguazú during the period from June to July of the year 2023. The approach adopted by this study is quantitative with descriptive scope and a cross-sectional design where 4 ice cream parlors were analyzed from which 5 samples were taken from each ice cream parlor, adding 20 samples in total. The bacteriological analysis was carried out in the Laboratory of the Santa Clara de Asís University where petrifilm plates for CC coliforms were used for culture and the counts were recorded in an instrument developed taking into account the ISO 4832 method and the Paraguayan Standard to obtain the assessment of bacteriological growth. The results obtained indicate that the samples of the analyzed ice cream parlors presented coliform growth above the established limits, indicating contamination; in this way it can be concluded that it affects the safety of ice cream and thus also exposes the consumer to suffer from foodborne diseases (ETA). In addition, it is suggested that future research be followed up in order to evaluate the safety of ice cream sold in establishments.