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Risks of microbiological contamination of fruits and vegetables used for food

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Fruits and vegetables are most often consumed without being thoroughly processed before consumption. Some plant foods are vacuum-packed to ensure long shelf life as well as preserving the quality and safety of the product. Fruits and vegetables carry naturally occurring non-pathogenic epiphytic microflora on their surfaces. During growth, harvesting, transport and further handling they can be repeatedly contaminated by pathogens from human or animal sources. Fresh fruit crops have been implicated in a number of documented foodborne disease outbreaks. Outbreaks of diseases caused by bacteria, viruses and parasites have been epidemiologically linked to the consumption of a wide range of fruits and vegetables. The aim of our study is to assess the risk of contamination in fruit and berry crops and how to address this long-standing problem, namely, contamination of fruit and vegetables with unnatural pathogenic microflora. The following fruit and berry crops common in Turkestan region were chosen for the experiment: Apple variety Suislepskoe (stolovka) , peach variety Nectarine and grape variety Kishmish. Bacteriological inoculation was carried out by membrane filtration of used sterile water to obtain flushes from the surface of fruit crops. All work was carried out under full aseptic conditions. The utensils, water and other equipment used in the work were sterilised in advance. The data obtained during the experiment shows that there is a potential for widespread contamination of uncharacteristic microflora of plant products. Based on the results of the study it can be concluded that there are yeasts and acetic acid bacteria on the surface of all three samples of fruit and berry crops, which can be universally contaminated food and are not the natural microflora for the above mentioned crops. Specifically, fruits and vegetables can be contaminated with various bacterial pathogens, including Salmonella, Shigella, E. Coli O157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes and Campylobacter.

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