Salmonella contamination in raw vegetables: A review

Abstract

Raw vegetables that experience increasing demand by consumer due to the healthy nutrients. It is thought consumption of raw vegetables will help in reducing chronic diseases such as hypertension, obesity, cholesterol and diabetes. With the increasing consumption of raw vegetables, several outbreaks linked to the pathogen contamination in these vegetables have been reported worldwide. One of the most common pathogen contamination is Salmonella. Salmonella have two species which are S. bongori and S. enterica. Of these, only S. enterica that cause human infection. However, there are roughly 1500 serovars within S. enterica. Salmonella are ubiquitously present in the environment and easily contaminate food if no proper handling being practices throughout the supply chain. Various vegetables have been implicated with the contamination of Salmonella. Thus, this paper review contamination of Salmonella in vegetables from various studies and the outbreaks.