Objective: It is known that chicken and chicken products have an important role in foodborne infections and intoxications. Nowadays, the fast-food sector has developed rapidly in our country and the leading food of this sector, is doner kebab made of poultry meat, because of its economical price. In this study, it is aimed to evaluate the microbiological quality of chicken doner kebab which is widely, and fondly consumed in Istanbul.

Method: A total of 30 cooked chicken doner kebab samples were collected randomly from different restaurants in the city center of Istanbul between April and July 2018 and the total number of aerobic mesophilic bacteria (TAMB), and the number of Enterobacteriaceae, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp. and Staphylococcus aureus were investigated as indicators of microbial quality.

Results: In the cooked chicken doner samples; the number of TAMB (2,4x10³-5x10⁵ cfu/g), Enterobacteriaceae (<10 cfu/g-4x10² cfu/g), S. aureus (<10 cfu/g-4x10⁴ cfu/g) and Escherichia coli (<10 cfu/g-2x10¹ cfu/g) were identified as indicated. Of the bacteria isolated from the doner kebab samples gram-negatives bacteria, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella oxytoca, Serratia liquefaciens, Serratia odorifera biogp 1, Serratia liquefaciens, Pantoea agglomerans were identified. In one sample, Salmonella spp was detected and identified as Salmonella Arizonae.

Conclusion: As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that some chicken doner kebaps could pose a risk to food safety and public health.