الفهرس 
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Abstract
Ready to eat meat products are considered highly nutritious meals, and their consumption as fast food is increasing at the present time due to the ease of preparation and eating at any time and place, but they may be the cause of many diseases, including food poisoning.
In the current study, a total of 100 ready-to-eat (RTE) sandwiches (50 of each) fried sausage and kofta (25 fried and 25 grilled) were collected randomly from fast food restaurants in Elkharga city, New Valley Governorate, Egypt for assessment of the hygienic (coliforms, fecal coliforms, E. coli. yeast, and mould counts) and proximate analysis (moisture, protein, fat, ash, carbohydrates, gross energy, and cholesterol content) quality.
By naked eye all samples showed no faults. Coliforms was detected in 68, 76, and 72% of the examined RTE sandwiches of fried sausage, fried kofta and grilled kofta with median value (MNP/g) of 350, >1100 and >1100, respectively; fecal coliforms was found in 8, 12, and 16% of the samples, respectively with median value of 3.6, 21, and 32 MPN/g. E. coli were found in 2, 4, and 12% of the samples with a count of 16, 9.1, and 3 - 9.1 MPN/g, respectively. Pathogenic E. coli strains were identified from fried sausage (4 strains), fried kofta (2 strains) and grilled kofta (4 strains) samples. Yeasts were detected in 82, 84, and 80% with count ranged from 2.30 to 6.76, 2.30 to 6.61, and 2.30 to 6.72; and moulds detected in 70, 60, and 84% with count in the range of 2-5.93, 2.30-4.48 and 2.30-4.90, respectively. The average yeast count was 4.68±0.17, 4.49±0.26, and 4.75±0.31 log10 cfu/g; while that of mould was 2.93±0.15, 2.94±0.15, and 2.88±0.14 log10 cfu/g, respectively. The average moisture content (%) was 55.05±0.49, 55.01±0.42, and 57.43±0.21; protein (%) was 15.19±0.30, 18.60±0.45, and 21.55±0.43; fat (%) was 11.82±0.20, 18.00±0.40, and 13.58±0.26; ash (%) was 3.32±0.09, 3.29±0.09, and 3.06±0.12; and carbohydrates (%) was 14.62±0.32, 5.10±0.54, and 4.38±0.26 in fried sausage, fried kofta, and grilled kofta sandwiches samples, respectively. The average gross energy content (Kcal/100g) was 225.6±2.76, 256.8±2.88, and 225.9±1.66, respectively. The highest percentage of energy was provided from fat., 46.99, 62.83, and 53.91%, respectively followed by protein and carbohydrates. The average total cholesterol content (mg/100g) was 62.67±7.73, 52.25±7.47, and 59.58±10.21, respectively.