ABSTRACT

The study evaluated the microbiological quality of vegetables (Water leaves, Green, Bitter leaf, Scent leaf and Ugu) sold in Ahiaeke market. A total of seven bacterial strains were obtained and identified using morphological characteristics, pigmentation on media, microscopy, biochemical and sugar fermentation methods. This reveals the major bacterial isolates to belong to Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aurues, Samonella species, Shigella species, Baillus species, Klebsiella sp and Bacillus species respectively. It was observed that Staphylococcus aureus is the most frequently occurring isolates with a percentage occurrence of (26.0%), this is followed by Escherichia coli with a percentage occurrence of (19.0%), then Bacillus sp with the percentage occurrence of (15.2%), Salmonella sp with a percentage occurrence of (13.0%), whereas Klebsiella sp had the least percentage occurrence of (6.5%). The percentage distribution of the isolates in the various vegetable samples was also noted. It was observed that water leaf had the highest number of bacteria with 15 representing (30.0%), while scent leaf had the least percentage distribution of 4(8.0%). The presence these organisms in the vegetable samples are of public health significance. Therefore, regular monitoring of the quality of commercially available vegetables for human consumption is recommended to avoid outbreak of food borne illness resulting from the organisms encountered in this study