Microbiological Quality of Organic and Conventional Leafy Vegetables

Table 2

Mean counts of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, yeasts and molds, and coliforms at 30°C and 45°C from 70 vegetable samples from organic and conventional cultivation.

Microorganism	Conventional		Organic		value
	Mean	SD±	Mean	SD±
Aerobic mesophilic bacteria ()	4.84	0.83	4.32	1.13
Yeasts and molds ()	3.18	0.78	2.81	0.85	0.04^†
Coliforms at 30°C ()	1.96	0.97	1.08	1.02	<0.01^†
Coliforms at 45°C ()	0.79	0.88	0.25	0.27	<0.01^†

SD is standard deviation. Values in bold indicate significant statistical difference (). Student’s -test. ^†Mann–Whitney’s test.