MICROBIOLOGICAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF RAW SALAD VEGETABLE SOLD IN MINNA METROPOLIS, NIGERIA

Abstract

Vegetables are edible part of plants. A total of twenty five raw salad vegetables were collected and the microbiological assessment was made using pour plate method. The analysis was carried out on carrots, cucumber, cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes. The results obtained from this study revealed that the total heterotrophic viable bacterial counts, coliform counts and fungal counts for all the salad vegetables ranged from 1.4 × 106 - 6.2 × 106 cfu/g, 1.1 × 106 - 3.3 × 106 cfu/g and 2.1 × 103 - 4.5 × 105 Vegetables are edible part of plants. A total of twenty five raw salad vegetables were collected and the microbiological assessment was made using pour plate method. The analysis was carried out on carrots, cucumber, cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes. The results obtained from this study revealed that the total heterotrophic viable bacterial counts, coliform counts and fungal counts for all the salad vegetables ranged from 1.4 × 106 - 6.2 × 106 cfu/g, 1.1 × 106 - 3.3 × 106 cfu/g and 2.1 × 103 - 4.5 × 105