Análise parasitológica e microbiológica de alfaces (Lactuca sativa Linn) comercializadas em restaurantes self-service em São Luís, Maranhão

Allana Dutra de Mesquita, Alcileny ima Viana, Anne Karoline Mendes Serra, Herica Cristiny Sales Pimenta, Rodrigo Sevinhago, Marcelino Santos Neto

Abstract

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa Linn) is the vegetable most consumed by Brazilians and can be used in various types of dishes. Its consumption requires attention regarding hygienic-sanitary aspects, since it can be vehicles of contamination for consumers. Therefore, the objective of this work was to analyze the parasitological and microbiological profile of lettuce sold in self-service restaurants in São Luís, Maranhão, collecting a sample of lettuce from five restaurants in six neighborhoods, thus totaling 30 samples. These were stored in styrofoam with ice and immediately transported to the Laboratory of Biomedical Sciences at Ceuma University, which, after washing with autoclaved distilled water, proceeded to parasitological analyzes through spontaneous sedimentation techniques and centrifugation and for microbiological analysis it was The COLItest® kit was used to collect total coliforms and Escherichia coli. Of the lettuce collected from restaurants, 60% (18/30) were positive for some parasitic form, with the protozoan Tetrahymena spp. (6/30), and the helminth Toxocara canis (3/30) were the most observed. In the microbiological results, 93% (2/30) of the samples showed positive results for total coliforms and Escherichia coli and 63% (17/30) of the samples were unfit for consumption. The sample that had the highest contamination by Escherichia coli was from the R5 restaurant in the Centro neighborhood (8.60x102 CFU/mL). The ingestion of contaminated vegetables is a risk to the health of consumers and hygienic-sanitary practices are an important mechanism to avoid the presence of microorganisms and parasites and the self-service restaurants in this study need to implement and/or improve this practice.