Abstract:
The vegetable salad is a popular and healthy food for human beings. It may be contaminated by a lot of
microbes. This research work was conducted to isolate and identify the Escherichia coli and Salmonella
bacteria from mixed vegetable salad in Dhaka City, Bangladesh from 2020 to 2021. A total number of 120
mixed vegetable salad samples were collected from different restaurants, food corners and street vendors.
Bacteria were identified based on cultural, staining and biochemical properties. Total viable count (TVC) and
total coliform count (TCC) were determined. The mean ±SD values of TVC (log10CFU/gm) were 6.07±0.69,
5.42±0.69 and 7.04±0.48 for restaurant, food corner and street vendor, respectively. The TCC
(log10CFU/gm) were 6.20±0.59, 5.23±0.59 and 6.70±0.57 in restaurant, food corner and street vendor
samples, respectively. The highest contaminations of E. coli and Salmonella spp. were observed in street
vendor salads which were 15% and 7.5%, respectively. The antimicrobial sensitivity test showed resistance
to ampicillin, amoxicillin and tetracycline, while sensitive to ceftriaxone, gentamicin and streptomycin for
both types of bacteria. So, these bacteria are zoonotic and the salad from different food shops should be
prepared hygienically prior to consumption.
