Qualité microbiologique des farines de blé consommées au Maroc

Cereal products (soft and hard wheat) are a basic staple food in the Moroccan diet. A total of 60 samples of two types of wheat flours used for human consumption were collected; 30 samples among this collection were obtained from various households using Moroccan varieties of wheat produced in traditional flour mills. The rest of the samples were pur- chased from retail wheat flour sources in the Rabat and Sale city markets. Standard plate counts (SPC), total and faecal coli- forms, Clostridium, Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, yeast, lactic acid bacteria, and molds, were carried out to assess the microbiological quality of wheat flour. Microbiological interpretation of the criteria was performed according to standards implemented by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Most frequent counts, in traditional and industrial wheat flour, were total aerobic mesophilic bacteria with an average 4 × 10 4 and 2.5 × 10 4 cfu/g, respectively. The results showed higher coliform and fungi counts in house than in commercial samples. Patho- genic flora as Salmonella spp., Shigella spp., S. aureus, L. monocytogenes, and Clostridium were not detected in all investi- gated samples. Bacterial strains isolated from both flours belong to the following genera: Enterobacter spp., Serratia spp., Klebsiella spp., Pantoea spp., Leclercia spp., Proteus spp. The most frequent genus of the investigated isolates was Asper- gillus (81 %). Microbial counts were lower than the limit laid down in the Codex Alimentarius, attributing to these flours a satisfactory microbiological quality.