Calidad microbiológica de vegetales empacados

Abstract

Fresh vegetables are included within the diet because of their great nutritional and healthy intake, there are risks associated with their consumption, various microorganisms have been isolated in high concentrations and they can often be pathogenic. The objective of this research was to evaluate the microbiological quality of packaged vegetables: lettuce creole, romaine and spinach; that are sold in the city of Loja, high levels or the presence of these organisms indicate some kind of contamination, altering the microbial quality of food. 10 samples of each product that corresponded to different production batches was performed. aerobic mesophilic bacteria was determined by the method of plate count, total coliforms and Escherichia coli by the most probable number technique using disks Colicomplete. Aerobic count was 3.41 to 6.99 log CFU/g, for total coliforms was from 0.48 to > 5.04 Log NMP/g and the presence of E. coli was detected in 13 samples. The results show that 67% of samples does not comply with the reference standards for aerobic plate counts, 77% for total coliforms and 43% for Escherichia coli, which do not meet the regulatory requirement for such products and it can be considered as a possible risk to the consumer