Ready‐to‐eat foods (RTEs) are foods consumed without any further processing. They are widely consumed as choice meals especially by school‐aged children and the fast‐paced working class in most low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs), where they contribute substantially to the dietary intake. Depending on the type of processing and packaging material, RTEs could be industrially or traditionally processed. Typically, RTE vendors are of low literacy level, as such, they lack knowledge about good hygiene and food handling practices. In addition, RTEs are often vended in outdoor environments such that they are exposed to several contaminants of microbial origin. Depending on the quantity and type of food contaminant, consumption of contaminated RTEs may result in foodborne diseases and several other adverse health effects in humans. This could constitute major hurdles to growth and development in LMICs. Therefore, this review focuses on providing comprehensive and recent occurrence and impact data on the frequently encountered contaminants of microbial origin published in LMICs within the last decade (2009 to 2018). We have also suggested viable food safety solutions for preventing and controlling the food contamination and promoting consumer health.

中文翻译：

---

低收入和中等收入国家即食食品的微生物安全性：10 年（2009 年至 2018 年）综合回顾

即食食品 (RTE) 是未经任何进一步加工而食用的食品。它们被广泛用作精选餐，尤其是大多数低收入和中等收入国家 (LMIC) 的学龄儿童和快节奏的工人阶级，它们对膳食摄入量做出了重大贡献。根据加工和包装材料的类型，RTE 可以进行工业加工或传统加工。通常，即食供应商的文化水平较低，因此，他们缺乏有关良好卫生和食品处理实践的知识。此外，RTE 通常在户外环境中出售，因此它们会暴露于多种微生物来源的污染物。根据食品污染物的数量和类型，食用受污染的 RTE 可能会导致食源性疾病和其他几种对人类健康的不利影响。这可能构成中低收入国家增长和发展的主要障碍。因此，本综述侧重于提供关于过去十年（2009 年至 2018 年）中低收入国家中常见微生物来源污染物的全面和近期发生和影响数据。我们还提出了可行的食品安全解决方案，以预防和控制食品污染和促进消费者健康。