Research Article

Hiding in Fresh Fruits and Vegetables: Opportunistic Pathogens May Cross Geographical Barriers

Table 1

Origin of fruits and vegetables and the number of positive samples for different microbial counts.

NumberType of produceOriginAPCEnterobacteriaceaeS. aureusEnterococcusE. coli (30°C)E. coli (44°C)

Fruit ()
1BananaOman330000
Philippine320000
2Dates Oman330100
Saudi Arabia320100
3MangoOman330100
India, Pakistan3, 31, 10, 00, 00, 00, 0
4PapayaOman330300
Thailand, Philippine3, 33, 30, 00, 00, 00, 0
5PomegranateOman100000
India, Saudi Arabia2, 30, 00, 00, 00, 00, 0
6TomatoOman330000
Jordan, Netherlands, Syria2, 1, 30, 1, 30, 0, 00, 0, 20, 0, 00, 0, 0
7WatermelonOman310100
Egypt, Iran3, 32, 30, 00, 30, 00, 0

Vegetable ()
1CabbageOman330333
Netherlands330300
2CarrotOman330000
Australia, USA3, 33, 30, 00, 00, 00, 0
3CapsicumOman320000
Jordan, UAE3, 33, 20, 00, 00, 00, 0
4CucumberOman330000
UAE330100
5LettuceOman 330100
Iran, Jordan3, 33, 10, 03, 30, 10, 2
6RadishOman 333331
China330311

APC: aerobic plate count, USA: United States of America, and UAE: United Arab Emirates.
Three samples were analyzed from each country.