Abstract

Laboratory investigations were carried out on three different vegetable samples; Amaranthus hybridus (Green), Talinum triangulare (Waterleaf) and Telfairia occidentalis (Ugu) purchased from Vegetable farms in Ndoru and Ariam, for the Assessment of Microbial Load On Vegetables Cultivated And Sold Within Ikwuano LGA. The samples were washed with distilled water. The culturing was done for microbial analysis using the spread plate technique. All samples were found to be populated with various species of microorganisms. Five bacteria belonging to different genera and three fungi were isolated randomly and identified from the vegetables. Bacteria include Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus sp, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Proteus sp. while fungi are Aspergillus niger, Rhizopus stolonifer, and Fusarium sp. The total bacterial count ranged from 6.1x105 to 1.71xl07cfu/g for Ndoro samples washed with distilled water and 4.8 x 105 tol.42xl07cfu/g for Ariam samples washed with distilled water. S. aureus and E.coli had the highest occurrence of 25% while Proteus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa had the least occurrence of 16.67%. The fungal count ranged from 3.1x107 to 4.9x107cfu/g for samples collected from Ndoro and rinsed with distilled water and 3.2x107 to 4.8x107cfu/g for samples collected and rinsed with. R. stolonifer and A. niger had the highest percentage of occurrence of 40%.Fusarium sp had the least occurrence of 20%. This study showed the presence of organisms of health significance on retail vegetables. Reduction of risk of human illness associated with raw produce can be achieved through controlling points of potential contamination.