Microbial Quality of Ready-to-Eat Salad Sold in Benin City, Southern Nigeria

This paper examines the microbial quality of ready-to-eat vegetable salads obtained from three fast food centres in Benin City, Edo state, Nigeria. Across the counter samples of salad were collected from randomly selected locations within the city and subjected to microbial culture in Nutrient and MacConkey agar media for isolation of bacteria. Three bacteria species were isolated, namely; Salmonella spp. Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The total colony count ranged from 3.01 x 101 cfu/g to 1.5 x 103 cfu/g. The order of increasing colony count of the bacteria isolates was Salmonella > E. Coli > Staphylococcus aureus. Results from the study shows that ready-to-eat-salad samples obtained from fast food centres in Benin City have high microbial load and as such do not meet bacteriological quality standards. Consumption of such products may pose public health problem. It is recommended that the total hygiene and sanitary conditions under which these fast food centres operate should be monitored by the relevant government agencies and stringent supervision of processing methods are applied.Key words: Salads, Microbial quality, food- borne infections, Benin Cit