This study was planned to investigate the microbiological quality of hot served ready-to-eat meals and to evaluate the risks for public health. For this purpose, it was collected 60 soup samples (12 tomato, 16 lentil, 10 mushroom with cream, 12 chicken and 12 tripe soups) and 92 variety of ready-to-eat meals (25 meal with meat, 15 vegetable meal without meat, 20 rice, 15 macaroni, 17 mashed potatoes), totally 152 samples from the restaurants of Istanbul and analyzed for the presence of coliforms, E. coli, coagulase (+) S. aureus, sulfite reducing anaerobs and Salmonella spp. At the same time, samples of rice, macaroni and mashed potatoes were examined for B. cereus. According to the results of these analyses, coliforms were detected (102 -105 cfu/g) in 14 (23.3 %) and 28 (30.4%), E. coli was detected (101 -103 cfu/g) in 3 (5%) and 11 (12%), coagulase (+) S. aureus was detected (102 -105 cfu/g) in 3 (5%) and 16 (17.4%), sulfite reducing anaerobs were detected (101 -103 cfu/g) in 1 (1.7%) and 2 (2.1%) of soups and ready-to-eat meals, respectively. Furthermore, B. cereus was detected (102 -105 cfu/g) in 5 (9.6 %) of the examined samples. No Salmonella spp. was isolated in the samples.

As a conclusion, according to the results of this study, it was observed that microbiological quality of analyzed samples was low. Although Salmonella spp. could not be isolated in the samples, detection of E. coli, coagulase (+) S. aureus, sulfite reducing anaerobes and B. cereus was evaluated as a risk for public health.