Publications

Fruits and salads are the healthy sources of nutrients for many people’s regular meals served inrestaurants, hotels and in the food points of various educational institutions. However, vegetablesalads have been linked with outbreaks in many continents all over the globe, which resulted inseveral health issues. Reason behind the contamination of salads is primarily the poor hygienemanagement. Carrot, cucumber, onion, cabbage and tomato samples are most commonly soldsalads by street vendors and restaurants and stated as common source of transmission. Aim of thisstudy was to probe the prevalence of most common bacterial strains of the salad samples, whichare served in and sold by local street vendors, canteens and restaurants. Present investigationrevealed a serious concern of the variable bacterial loads in the salad and vegetable samples.Spreading awareness of the potential health risks were also discussed in the present study, whichare associated with poor handling of these salads and vegetables.