Abstract
Laboratory investigations were carried out on six different vegetable samples; Amaranthus cruentus (Amaranth), Talinum triangulare (Waterleaf), Solanecio biafrae (Worowo), Brassica olerecea (Cabbage), Lactuca sativa (Lettuce) and Daucus carota (Carrot) purchased from retailers in main market, Akure, Nigeria to determine the microbial and parasitic contamination. One part of each sample was washed with distilled water while the other part was washed with physiological saline. For parasitological analysis, the solutions were centrifuged, decanted and viewed under the microscope while culturing was done for microbial analysis using the pour plate technique. Only L. sativa was contaminated with helminth; Ascaris lumbricoides. All samples were found to be populated with various species of microorganisms. Seven bacteria belonging to different genera and six fungi were isolated randomly and identified from the vegetables. Bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Serratia marcescens, Salmonella typii and Proteus vulgaris while fungi are Aspergillus niger, Saccharomyces sp, Penicillium sp, Rhizopus stolonifer, Fusarium sp and Mucor mucedo. The total bacterial count ranged from 3.2×106 to 7.2 ×106cfu/g for samples washed with distilled water and 1.6 x 106 to 4.8×106cfu/g for samples washed with physiological saline. S. aureus had the highest occurrence of 25% while Salmonella typhii had the least occurrence of 10%. The fungal count ranged from 3.0×105 to 5.0×105sfu/g for samples washed with distilled water and 1.0×105 to 3.0×105sfu/g for samples washed with physiological saline. R. stolonifer had the highest percentage of occurrence of 33.3%. Saccharomyces had the occurrence of 22.2% and Penicillium sp, A. niger, Mucor mucedo, Fusarium sp had the least occurrence of 11.1%. This study showed the presence of organisms of health significance on retail vegetables. Reduction of risk of human illness associated with raw produce can be achieved through controlling points of potential contamination.
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