Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
J Appl Microbiol. 2010 Sep;109(3):996-1006. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2672.2010.04727.x.
The study was performed to evaluate the safety of whole and RTE vegetables and to investigate the effectiveness of different preventive strategies for the quality assurance of RTE vegetables collected from three Italian production systems. Producer 1, applied a strict system in compliance with GAP- GMP - HACCP, Producer 2 used chlorine disinfection at a second washing step, and Producer 3 using a physical microbial stabilization.
During the period 2005-2007, a total of 964 samples including whole vegetables and RTE salads, collected from three different producers in central Italy, were analysed to quantify the aerobic mesophilic count (AMC) and Escherichia coli, and for the presence of Salmonella spp, Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, hepatitis A virus and Norovirus (NoV).
None of the whole vegetable samples were positive for L. monocytogenes, E. coli O157:H7, HAV and NoV; however, a low prevalence of Salmonella was found. No pathogens were detected with cultural methods in any of the RTE vegetables analysed, only two RTE samples were positive for L. monocytogenes with PCR, but were not confirmed by the cultural method. The median values of AMC in RTE vegetables measured 24 h after packaging were statistically different among the 3 producers (5·4 × 10(6), 1·5 × 10(7) and 3·7 × 10(7) CFU g(-1), respectively; P=0·011). The lowest level was detected in Producer 1.
The products that were processed applying rigorously GAP, GMP and HACCP showed a better microbiological quality than those processed with chemical or physical stabilization. STUDY SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT: The results of the study evidenced the efficacy of GAP, GMP and HACCP in improving microbiological quality of whole and RTE vegetables.
本研究旨在评估新鲜和即食蔬菜的安全性，并研究从意大利三个生产系统收集的即食蔬菜的不同预防策略对质量保证的有效性。生产商 1 采用严格的系统，符合良好农业规范-良好生产规范-危害分析与关键控制点（GAP-GMP-HACCP），生产商 2 在第二洗涤步骤使用氯消毒，而生产商 3 使用物理微生物稳定化。
在 2005 年至 2007 年期间，总共分析了来自意大利中部三个不同生产商的 964 个样本，包括新鲜蔬菜和即食沙拉，以量化需氧嗜温计数（AMC）和大肠杆菌，并检测沙门氏菌、单核细胞增生李斯特菌、大肠杆菌 O157:H7、甲型肝炎病毒和诺如病毒（NoV）的存在。
没有一个新鲜蔬菜样本中存在单核细胞增生李斯特菌、大肠杆菌 O157:H7、HAV 和 NoV；然而，发现了低流行率的沙门氏菌。在用文化方法分析的任何即食蔬菜中都未检测到病原体，只有两个即食样品用 PCR 检测到单核细胞增生李斯特菌阳性，但未被文化方法证实。包装后 24 小时测量的即食蔬菜中 AMC 的中位数值在 3 个生产商之间存在统计学差异（分别为 5.4×10^6、1.5×10^7 和 3.7×10^7 CFU g^-1；P=0.011）。在生产商 1 中检测到的水平最低。
经过严格的 GAP、GMP 和 HACCP 处理的产品比经过化学或物理稳定化处理的产品具有更好的微生物质量。研究意义和影响：研究结果证明了 GAP、GMP 和 HACCP 在提高新鲜和即食蔬菜的微生物质量方面的有效性。
