Investigation of microbial contamination levels on ginseng sprouts and green moss used as domestic packaging material

Recently, consumers demand for healthy and fresh foods, including ginseng sprouts has increased. However, evaluation of microbial safety have not been intensively conducted. The purpose this study was to investigate contamination levels on produced 20 different farms green moss used as packaging material at these farms. Microbial sanitary indicator microorganisms (total aerobic bacteria, Escherichia coli, coliform, yeasts, molds) foodborne pathogens (E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Bacillus cereus) were evaluated in moss. As a result, the abundance total bacteria ranged from 5.52-8.08 5.74-9.70 log CFU/g, respectively. average population yeasts molds observed be > 3 CFU/g all In particular, populations B. cereus 3.56 5.88 Foodborne detected sprouts. aureus 7 (41%) out 17 Therefore, findings highlight need developing an effective control strategy eliminating hazardous microorganisms, improve