Poster Presentation Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2016

Microbiological quality of dietary supplements in South Korea (#330)

JEEEUN KIM 1 , YOUNGBIN SONG 1 , INSUN CHOI 1 , WOOYOUNG JUNG 1 , TAEWOONG LEE 1 , YEONHEE CHOI 1 , MEEKYUNG KIM 1
  1. Daejeon Regional office of Food and Drug Safety, Daejeon, South Korea

The purpose of this study was to investigate the microbiological quality of dietary supplements such as enzyme foods, vitamin and mineral supplements sold in South Korea. Two hundred fifty five samples of enzyme foods and 300 samples of vitamin and mineral supplements were collected according to the sampling plans recommended by The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods (ICMSF) from randomly selected offline and online stores. In enzyme foods, the total aerobic bacteria were found in 98 % (250/255) with a mean level of 5.46 log CFU/g. Coliforms were 15.7 % (40/255) with a mean level of 0.27 log CFU/g. Bacillus cereus was 5.5 % (14/255) with a mean level of -0.26 log CFU/g. E. coli, S. aureus and C. perfringens were not found in any samples. In vitamin and mineral supplements, coliforms were not found in any samples. These results could be applied to improve the standards and specification in the Korea Food Code and to harmonize with the international standards.