A total of 200 ready to eat (RTE) meat products (40 of each) beef burger, kofta, Shawerma, Hawawshy and Chicken were collected from fast food restaurants and street venders. Samples were examined to detect the prevalence of Salmonellae, L. monocytogenes and E coli O157:H7. Salmonellae were isolated from eight RTE products with an incidence 4% (one strain from beefburger, kofta and Hawawshy, two strains from Shawerma and 3 strains from chicken samples with an incidence 2.5, 2.5, 2.5, 5, 7.5% respectively.

Listeria spp were isolated from eight RTE meat products. Two strains of L. monocytogenes (1%) were isolated from one Hawawshy sandwich and one chicken sample. L. monocytogenes was failed to isolate from all samples of beef burger, kofta, Shawerma. E coli O157:H7 was detected in only one sample of beef burger with a total incidence 0.5%.

Measuring the quality of RTE chicken and Hawawshy sandwiches referring to the maximum time should not elapsed between cooking and consumption was done. The obtained results indicated that the maximum time to keep the ready to eat chicken and Hawawshy at room temperature and 65°C were 3 hours. In case of storage RTE chicken and Hawawshy at chilling temperature, the maximum time to keep them were 12 h and 24h respectively.

Suggestive control measures to protect the consumers against food borne pathogens and determining the best time elapsed between cooking and consumption were recommended. The incidence of pathogens in this study is compared to that in retail products in many international locales.