Microbiological quality assessment of ready to eat vegetables sold in Yankaba Market Kano, Kano State Nigeria

Abstract

Safety of food is still a public health challenge globally. Fresh vegetables can be contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms from farm to table. This study evaluates the microbiological quality of ready to eat vegetables sold in Yankaba market, Kano. A total of forty (40) vegetables (cabbage, carrot, cucumber and lettuce) were collected from Yankaba Kasua and Kasua Turawa, and transported to the laboratory under aseptic condition to determine the bacterial load and fungal loads, identification of bacteria and fungi found in ready to eat vegetables using standard protocols. All samples collected had varying level of bacterial contamination ranging from 1.32x105CFU/ml to 1.45x106CFU/ml. The highest mean fungal count was observed in cabbage samples obtained from Yankaba Kasua (8.8x103MC/ml) and carrot from Kasua Turawa (8.0x103MC/ml) whereas the least fungal count was observed in lettuce sample obtained from Kasua Turawa (3.2x103MC/ml). Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus were the predominant bacterial isolates accounting for 28.75% and 23.75% respectively whereas Shigella species and Enterobacter species were the least bacterial specie identified from this study, no Salmonella was isolated from this study. Aspergillus genera was found to be the most common fungi specie identified in all the samples accounting for 58.46% of the fungi identified and Geotrichum species was the least fungi identified. This study clearly shows ready to eat vegetables harboured high microbial load majorly E. coli, S. aureus and Aspergillus species which could pose a potential hazard to consumers. There is an urgent requirement for good microbiological practice in handling of ready to eat vegetables, hence the need for application of critical control point of washing in brine and vinegar during preparation.