Microbial and Parasitic Contamination of Vegetables in Developing Countries and Their Food Safety Guidelines

Table 1

Microbes isolated from notable vegetables.

Type of salad vegetable	Microbes isolated	Reference number
Lettuce	Escherichia coli O157:H7, Proteus spp., Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Klebsiella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas spp., Acinetobacter spp., Micrococcus spp., Bacillus, yeast, and moulds	[32–35]
Cabbage	Escherichia coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas spp., Erwinia spp., Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus, and Enterococcus	[33, 36, 37]
Carrot	Escherichia coli O157:H7, Erwinia spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter spp., Citrobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Lactobacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Vibrio spp., Proteus spp., Aspergillus spp., Rhizopus spp., and Enterococcus	[33, 34, 36, 38]
Cucumber	Escherichia coli O157:H7, Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Lactobacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Vibrio spp., Aspergillus spp., and Shigella spp.	[34, 36, 38]
Onion	E. coli, Pseudomonas spp., Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp., Streptococcus spp., and Cryptosporidium spp.	[36, 37, 39, 40]
Tomatoes	Citrobacter spp., Enterobacter spp., Klebsiella spp., Lactobacillus spp., Pseudomonas spp., Staphylococcus spp., Vibrio spp., Aspergillus spp., Rhizopus spp., Penicillium spp., Shigella spp., Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., Listeria spp., and Enterococcus	[33, 38, 41, 42]

Italicized words indicate scientific names of microrganisms (Genus and Species).