Background: Food borne diseases could threat human health. In these circumstances, Escherichia coli is one of the most important bacterium in food poisoning. The aim of this study was to evaluate and determine antibiotic resistant strains isolated from traditional food samples.

Materials and methods: In this study, 100 traditional food samples were evaluated for presence of E.coli and the isolates were identified and characterized using biochemical and serological tests. Then, antibiotic resistance pattern of the isolates were determined using Kirby-Bauer test based on CLSI 2013.

Results: The results indicated that 7% of the food samples were infected with E.coli, and out of that 3% were belonging to pathogenic group. Furthermore, the results indicated that 100% of the isolates were resistant to ampicilin and vancomycin, followed by cefixime (75%), tetracycline (62.5%), ceftriaxone, gentamycin, co-trimoxazole (25%), ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol (12.5%).

Conclusion: Escherichia coli is an important bacterium in food poisoning and presence of this bacterium in food could be threat the human health. According to the obtained results, for preventing the food spoilage, teaching and sanitary, preparation skills, transportation and depositing are necessary factors. In addition, isolated bacteria had resistance to the most antibiotics, although ciprofloxacin and chloramphenicol had more effect on the isolates in this geographical area, their side effects should be considered.

Keywords: Escherichia coli, Food poisoning, Antibiotic resistance.