MICROBIOLOGICAL RISK OF PREPACKED SPROUTS AND MEASURES TO REDUCE TOTAL COUNTS

There is a nutritional trend towards light, low calorie and healthy fo od including mainly fresh vegetables and sprouts. Sprouts, a perishabl e, susceptible and usually highly contaminated produce, is preferably consumed uncooked. This involves the risk of food intoxication. 48 com mercial prepacked sprouts (alfalfa, lentils, wheat, peas, raphanus, su nflowers, mungbeans and red radish) were studied microbiologically for total counts, enterobacteriae and pseudomonads, lactic acid bacteria, yeasts and moulds. Total counts under aerobic conditions were 1.0 x 1 0(5) to 2.2 x 10(9)/g. More than 80 % of the samples contained 10(8) t o 10(9) microorganisms/g. Two samples of mungbean-and one of alfalfa s prouts contained 2.6 x 10(5) and 4 x 10(5) Bacillus cereus/g, respecti vely, The sprouts investigated contained no salmonallae, but in 5 case s the non-pathogenic species Listeria innocua. Enterobacteriaceae and pseudomonads were the dominant groups with counts between 1.0 x 10(4) and 5.0 x 10(7) cfu/g. The lactic acid bacteria counts varied from 1.0 x 10(2) to 5.0 x 10(7) cfu/g, while yeasts and moulds counts ranged f rom 1.0 x 10(2) to 8.0 x 10(6) cfu/g. Thorough washing of the sprouts in water was not sufficient for decontamination; it reduced total coun ts by less than one order of magnitude. Rinsing in 1 % and 2 % lactic and acetic acid, respectively, reduced total counts by 96 %. Blanching of mungbean sprouts for 1 min at 90 degrees C was the only method to reduce counts sufficiently to 7.4 x 10(2) cfu/g and still preserve vit amin C.