Butterhead lettuce, a salad crop pose to food safety risk issues because it is normally consume raw. The information regarding nitrate and Escherichia coli 0157:H7 contaminations status on Butterhead lettuce in Malaysia is still scanty. Not much work of this nature is carried out locally. Recently, an outbreak of E. coli was happened in Germany, which one of the most stringent countries in term of food safety on fresh produce. Hence, this study seemed inevitable to be carried out. The first experiment, a market study, to determine the level of nitrate and E. coli 0157:H7 contaminations of Butterhead lettuce. The result showed that nitrate levels exceeded the maximum limit but the bacteria contaminations were still under safe limit. The second experiment was to determine the effect of harvesting stage on the nitrate content, quality and nitrate reductase activity (NRA) of Butterhead lettuce, grown by hydroponic and organic systems. After 35, 38,41 and 44 days of transplanting (DAT), the.....

1713 hits