Systematic review on the microbiological quality of fresh vegetables and ready-to-eat salad in Nigeria

Abstract

The consumption of fresh vegetables and salads has become popular, and because of a greater understanding of health benefits, these are most often eaten raw or with minimal processing. The microbiological safety of these vegetables is necessary and the possible source of contamination includes microbial contamination of raw produce, workers hygiene and the condition of the environment and equipment used to process the salad and fresh vegetable for distribution. This article reviewed the previously published literature on the microbiological quality of fresh vegetable and salad. There was 100% isolation of bacteria in all of the studies review which include Escherichia coli, Aspergillus spp., Staphyloccocus aureus, Salmonella, Klebsiella spp., Actinomycetes, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Staphyloccocus epidermidis, Bacillus spp., Shigella spp., Lactobacillus and Streptoccocus spp. The review study recommended that fresh vegetables and salad should be properly washed with clean water before preparing.