Research:
Food Safety and Quality Improvement of Salad Vegetables in the Supply Chain
The salad vegetables are usually known as those vegetables which are not cooked and may undergo minimal heat treatment before consumption, thereby posing health risks to consumers. It has been reported that outbreaks of infectious diseases associated with the consumption of raw vegetables had become more frequent in many developed countries over the last few years. Since vegetables are normally grown low to the ground, they are likely infected through contaminated soil with improperly treated animal manure as fertilizer or irrigated with contaminated waters. Furthermore, contamination may be attributed to the unhygienic handling practices by farm and food factory workers. Thus, it is highly important to study the risk of consuming fresh salad vegetables to provide sound recommendations on how to keep the quality and safety of fresh salad vegetables all throughout the supply chain. In this manner, the consumers’ health is safeguarded and the farmers and other key players of the vegetable industry will be able to sustainably compete in the market.