Doubles: national delicacy or national disaster? - abstract

ABSTRACT

The food called "doubles" is a sandwich made of two seasoned fried wheat flour skins (bara) enclosing curried channa (chick pea) embellished with mango chutney and pepper sauce. It is sold throughout Trinidad and Tobago as a popular snack food. Over the 5-year period, January 1990 to October 1994, 627 doubles samples apparently randomly obtained from the 9 counties of Trinidad and Tobago by Public Health Inspectors were submitted to the Trinidad Public Health Laboratory for analysis. Samples were analyzed, using standard microbiological tests. Criteria used to classify food as unsafe were (1) a total bacterial count exceeding 1.0 x 10[5] CFU/gram; (2) a total coliform count > 1.0 x 10 [3] CFU/gram; (3) presence of faecal coliform in 1 gram; (4) Staphylococcus aureus in 0.01 gram and (5) Salmonella in 20 grams. Two hundred and fifty (40 percent) of these samples were deemed unsafe as they failed to meet the laboratory criteria for cooked foods. County Caroni had the highest percentage of unsafe samples (64/90 or 71 percent). Klebsiella was the dominant faecal coliform isolated. Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas were also isolated from the doubles samples deemed unsafe. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from six samples during 1990 and 1991. There were no isolates of Salmonellae or Shigella. From the data analyzed, a definite public health problem is indicated by the high percentages of unsafe doubles in four counties, i.e., Caroni, St. George East, Victoria, and St. Patrick. The need for added stringent measures in relation to hygenic practices by itinerant vendors is clearly indicated (AU)