MICROBIAL FLORA IN 'READY-TO- EAT' FRESH

A Study of the Microbial Flora in 'ready-to- eat' Fresh

A Study of the Microbial Flora in 'ready-to- eat' Fresh

Keywords

Ready to eat foods: These types of foods contain the features and characteristics of a food product that give guarantees of safety and security. These foods are hygienic and safe to eat.

Vegetable salads: The salad is a generic term used in gardening and horticulture as various kinds of leafy vegetables, that is to say vegetables whose raw leaves are used in the composition of a dish.

Microbial flora: The microbial flora is an occasional transient or is on the skin of our hands. It consists of more microorganisms that can be killed with the help of simple washing of the hands with water and soap. Its persistence on the skin of the hands may be higher or lower, depending on the objects, surfaces, materials, or organisms with which the hands are in contact in the course of the day. Among the microorganisms, the transient microbial flora includes:

Enterobacteria

Pseudomonas

Streptococci and enterococci

Staphylococci

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Overview

In recent years there has been a sharp increase in consumption of foods with high added value, which, thanks to innovative methods of conservation and packaging allow consumers to reduce the time needed to prepare meals. The fresh-cut products are recently introduced products in the fruit and vegetable market and included in this product category (Montville & Matthews, 2005, pp. 45-60).

Fresh fruit and vegetables that are, after suffering a trimming, cutting, washing and drying, are packaged in bags or in containers covered by a transparent plastic film with selective permeability to gases, packaging, weighing between 100 to 500 grams are provided, in many cases, also of seasoning. They have a market share of 8% of the total number of fruit and vegetable sector and an average growth rate per year, since 2001, of 18.6% (Forsythe, 2010, pp. 110-115).

Hygiene and health of the raw material directly affects the quality of the product, similar to cultural practices (type of fertilization, irrigation water, use of insecticides, etc.) To affect a significant influence on product quality are all the preparatory operations and marketing, with particular reference to the respect of the cold chain throughout the chain of production and sale.

Being products ready for use, which often do not require, by the consumer, other treatments can eliminate or reduce to an acceptable level pathogens possibly present, may represent potential vehicles of etiologic agents, of bacterial origin, viral and protozoa. The bacterial flora that normally characterizes these products is very heterogeneous and includes germs for most psychrophilic, belonging, to the genera Pseudomonas, Erwinia, Acinetobacter, Flavobacterium, Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, plus Corynebacterium, yeasts, molds, etc (Mioni 2005, pp.129 ).

As a direct consequence of the phenomena catabolic of plant tissues that are carried out even after packaging, there is an increase in the concentration of CO2 within the container, which is able to slow, and in some cases to inhibit the development of the microbial flora present realizing , in fact, a condition of ...