Assessment of Food Safety Knowledge, Self-Reported Practices, and Microbiological Hand Hygiene Levels of Produce Handlers in Qatar.

Workers' hygiene is one of the most important risk factors in transferring pathogens to foods. Produce handlers lacked basic knowledge on personal hygiene and food safety. Produce handlers' hand hygiene levels were below set standards.

Assessing safe food handling knowledge and practices of food service managers in Doha, Qatar.

The aim of this cross-sectional study was to assess safe food handling practices, food safety knowledge, and adherence to implementation of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point among 53 food safety managers working in randomly selected food service establishments in Qatar. Face-to-face interviews with the managers at each participating food service establishment were conducted using a survey consisting of 40 questions in October-December 2015. In addition to the survey questionnaire, a checklist was used to determine the implementation of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point by observing actual practices applied at each food service establishment.

Application of MALDI Biotyper System for Rapid Identification of Bacteria Isolated from a Fresh Produce Market.

MALDI-TOF MS has revolutionized the identification of microorganisms and has become an indispensable part of routine diagnostics in the clinical microbiological laboratory. However, application of this technique in microbial surveillance outside of clinical settings is limited. In this study, we have evaluated the performance of a Bruker MALDI Biotyper System for the identification of bacteria isolated from the hand palms of fresh produce handlers and their surrounding environments in a wholesale fresh produce market in Doha, Qatar.

Hydrocarbon utilization by nodule bacteria and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria.

Standard and locally isolated nodule bacteria and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) were grown on crude oil and individual pure hydrocarbons as sole sources of carbon and energy. The nodule bacteria included two standard Rhizobium leguminosarum strains, two standard Bradyrhizobium japonicum strains, and one unknown nodule bacterial strain that was locally isolated from Vicia faba nodules. The PGPR included one standard Serratia liquefaciens strain and two locally isolated strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Flavobacterium sp.