Microbial Diversity and Quality of Ready-to-Eat Salad: An Unexplored Area of Local Hotels

Because of its many health advantages, ready-to-eat salad has become a staple in our lives, whether it be as a side dish or as part of a balanced meal. But with the emergence of illness outbreaks linked to eating raw salad, worries are growing. The goal of this study is to evaluate the microbiological quality of ready-to-eat salad greens in order to estimate how long they will last on the shelf and what kind of microbiome is associated with them. This microbiome may be contaminated by endohytes, epiphytes, or contamination during the harvesting, post-harvesting, processing, or packing. A random sample of twelve salads was gathered, and its microbiological quality and 16S A metagenomic investigation was conducted to ascertain the microbiome makeup implicated in illnesses or rotting. The salads appear to be potentially hazardous for ingestion based on the mean values of 7.66 log cfu/gm for aerobic mesophilic count and 7.33 log cfu/gm for psychrotrophic count. In addition, total coliform and Enterobacteriaceae were found (mean 3.66 log cfu/gm for both), but fecal coliform was completely absent. There were also staphylococci that were coagulase positive. Firmicutes (47.18%), Cyanobacteria (28.19%), Proteobacteria (23.24%), Bacteriodetes (0.88%), and Actinobacteria (0.41%) were the top five phyla discovered. Of the salad samples, Weissella (54.86%) seems to be the most prevalent genus. With more than 1% abundance in every sample, genera including Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, and Enterobacter were shown to be potential human pathogens. LAB organisms involved in spoiling include Leuconostoc, Lactobacillus, and Lactococcus. Cucumber salads were shown to have more nutritional value whereas tomatoes did not exhibit as much nutritious benefit when combined with other foods. Cucumber-based salads were superior in terms of iron, nitrite, salt, DPPH activity, vitamins, and antioxidants. With the exception of Weissella, the majority of the species showed a positive correlation between protein concentration and spoiling. Elevated pH and high moisture content encourage the growth of certain pathogens, reducing the salad's shelf life. More research is required to fully comprehend the dynamics of the microbiome in salads and to preserve the standard and protect the public's health.