Calidad microbiológica en frutas de conchas comestibles expendidas en mercados populares de los municipios Valencia y San Diego, estado Carabobo, Venezuela

fruits constitute a group of indispensable nutrients for the health and wellbeing of individuals. we evaluated the microbiological quality of fruits with edible peels (strawberries, guavas and peaches) sold at popular markets in valencia and san diego, carabobo state, venezuela. we determined the number of cfu/g of mesophilic aerobics (ma), total and fecal coliforms (tc, fc) and salmonella spp. according to covenin guidelines. most of the ma counts obtained were high in most fruits. the contamination levels by these microorganisms were found to be between 1.4x105 and 6.6x1010 cfu/g. the counts found for tc were generally lower than those for ma, and occurred in amounts of between 2.6x103 and 7.2x1010 cfu/g. the presence of fc and salmonella spp. was not detected in the samples evaluated. of the fruits studied, strawberries were the ones which showed the highest microbiological contamination degree both by ma and tc. the absence of tc and salmonella spp. suggests that the conditions to which the fruits were submitted during the pre and post harvest period apparently were within the permissible limits of sanitary quality.