ABSTRACT
Histamine food poisoning is found to be associated with consumption
of foods containing unusually high levels of histamine. Fish belonging to
scombroid and non-scombroid fish groups may also cause histamine
poisoning. In this study, histamine forming bacteria in the commercial food
samples of local markets of Fayoum region were investigated. A total of 185
unique isolates were selected on the basis of colony morphology, 28 of
which were found to be prominent histamine producers on Niven's medium.
The percentage of histamine producing bacteria was 15.13% of the total
bacterial load. The dominant microflora was found to be Gram positive
bacilli, Gram negative bacilli and cocci. Out of the 185 isolates, 28 were
from salted fish, 17 from sardine, 13 from mullet, 12 from herring, 24 from
mish, 16 from raw milk, 15 from fermented milk, 21 from rumi cheese, 14
from white cheese, 11 from palm paste and 14 isolates were from pickle.
Results indicated that, regarding to fish samples, the highest content of
histamine was obtained from mullet followed by salted fish and sardine
products by 0.359, 0.316 and 0.259 mg/100g, respectively. Meanwhile,
herring fish sample recoded the minimum histamine levels. For dairy
samples, the highest content of histamine was obtained from rumi cheese
and the lowest histamine concentration recorded in raw milk being 0.379
and 0.133 mg/100g, respectively. Moreover, histamine concentration was
0.119 and 0.110 mg/100g, recorded from pickles and date palm paste,
respectively.