The Microbiological Quality of Environmentally Friendly and Ordinary Agricultural Vegetables Used in a School Foodservices

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to determine basic information on the microbiological quality of environmentally friendly vegetables used in school foodservices. Comparisons were made on the microbiological quality of eight different kinds of vegetables grown by environmentally friendly agricultural methods and ordinary agricultural methods to determine if there were significant differences. In the raw materials, aerobic plate counts were as follows: lettuce 4.58~7.43 log CFU/g, winter plowing chinese cabbage 5.61~7.36 log CFU/g, Korean leek 5.81 log CFU/g to TNTC (too numerous to Count), cabbage 5.93~6.43 log CFU/g, sesame leaves 3.15~5.23 log CFU/g, cucumber 5.00~5.79 log CFU/g, cherry tomato 2.96~5.40 log CFU/g, paprika 1.30~3.52 log CFU/g. In the comparison of the microbiological quality between environmentally friendly and ordinary agricultural vegetables, their acceptable ratio was the same (81.3%) and the mean aerobic plate counts was not significantly different. In the comparison of the microbiological quality between the leafy vegetables and the fruity vegetables, the fruity vegetables had a 100% acceptable ratio regardless of the agricultural method used to grow them, while the leafy vegetables had an acceptable ratio of 70%. In terms of the aerobic plate counts, the leafy vegetables had significantly higher counts; the leafy vegetables 5.87+/-1.18 log CFU/g, the fruity vegetables 4.12+/-1.54 log CFU/g.