Red meat is considered worldwide as one of the essential foods for human diet, because it is the main
source of vital proteins as well as lipids and salts. Beef meat burgers communally sold in fast food
shops due to its pleasant taste despite the possibility of causing food poisoning and illness if it has
been prepared from contaminated raw meat. Our study was planned to detect the microbial quality of
beef burger sold in Libyan´s butchers. The investigation was based on 75 samples which were
collected randomly from various butchers. Extracts from the samples were propagated on different
agar media in order to determine the total number of aerobic bacteria, Salmonella spp, Staphylococcus
aureus and Escherichia coli. The results of this study showed that all beef burgers were free from
contamination with Salmonella. The results also showed the presence of varying numbers of bacteria,
such as Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. The total number of aerobic bacteria was found to
be between 5×10^-3 to 6×10^-3log(cfu), and the total number of Staphylococcus aureus was between
2×10^-2 to 5×10^-4log(cfu), and lowest number recorded was Escherichia coli (4×10^-2 to 7×10^-3 cfu).
All of these recorded numbers of Bacteria are within the Libyan specification standard (2009).
Key words: Lean red meat, Salmonella spp, Poisoning and Disease, The general census of bacteria
Libyan standards for meat in 2009