Bacterial quality and safety of packaged fresh leafy vegetables at the retail level in Finland

Consumption of packaged fresh leafy vegetables, which are convenient ready-to-eat products, has increased during the last decade. The number of foodborne outbreaks associated with these products has concurrently increased. In our study, (1) label information, (2) O2/CO2 composition, (3) bacterial qu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of food microbiology 2016-09, Vol.232, p.73-79
Main Authors: Nousiainen, L.-L., Joutsen, S., Lunden, J., Hänninen, M.-L., Fredriksson-Ahomaa, M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Carbon Dioxide
Colony Count, Microbial
Consumer Product Safety
Escherichia coli - isolation & purification
Finland
Food Labeling
Food Microbiology
Food Quality
Food Safety
Foodborne Diseases - microbiology
Foodborne Diseases - prevention & control
Labelling
Leafy vegetables
Listeria monocytogenes - isolation & purification
Oxygen
Packaging
Plant Leaves - microbiology
Quality
Safety
Salmonella - isolation & purification
Vegetables - microbiology
Yersinia - isolation & purification
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Summary:Consumption of packaged fresh leafy vegetables, which are convenient ready-to-eat products, has increased during the last decade. The number of foodborne outbreaks associated with these products has concurrently increased. In our study, (1) label information, (2) O2/CO2 composition, (3) bacterial quality and (4) safety of 100 fresh leafy vegetables at the retail level were studied in Finland during 2013. Bacterial quality was studied using aerobic bacteria (AB) and coliform bacteria (CB) counts, and searching for the presence of Escherichia coli, Listeria and Yersinia. The safety was studied by the presence of Salmonella, ail-positive Yersinia, stx-positive E. coli (STEC) and Listeria monocytogenes using PCR and culturing. Important label information was unavailable on several packages originating from different companies. The packaging date was missing on all packages and the date of durability on 83% of the packages. Storage temperature was declared on 62% of the packages and 73% of the packages contained information about prewashing. The batch/lot number was missing on 29% of the packages. Very low oxygen (O2) (
ISSN:0168-1605
1879-3460
DOI:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2016.05.020