Bacterial contamination of salads and vegetables offered in restaurants and fast food in Birjand city in 2015

Given the ever-increasing population in the world, people's need for fruits and vegetables is increasing day by day. Fruit and vegetable are an important part of human diet. So, this study was conducted to determine the level of microbial contamination in the salads and vegetables supplied in restaurants and fast food in Birjand.
In this descriptive study, after identifing restaurants and fast food that were the supplier of salads and vegetables in Birjand, 2015, was removed 100 samples under sterile conditions randomly from all restaurants and fast food. The samples were transferred to the laboratory in good condition. The microbial contamination was compared with the current standard according to standard laboratory procedures of Standard and Industrial Research of Iran.
Results showed that maximum pollution vegetables and salads were in yeast (28%) and Staphylococcus aureus (13%) and Eshershia.Coli (9% and Enterococcus infection and parasite eggs were not found in the samples. Samples were taken, 69% in accordance with the standard and 31% were not in accordance with the standard.
According to the results, about 31% of the samples were contaminated. Shows that washing the vegetables are done, but probably do not be disinfected. Therefore, education in the field of disinfection of vegetables and salad ingredients and continuous sampling of salads and vegetables seems necessary.