Impedance measurements to assess microbial contamination of ready-to-use vegetables

An impedometric method for estimating the microbial load of ready-to-use vegetables, either inoculated or not inoculated with antimicrobial-producing lactic acid bacteria, was investigated. The correlation (R-2) between total mesophilic bacteria (log cfu/g) and time to detection was 0.889. A discrepancy was observed for the impedometric measurement of low coliforms counts, particularly in samples inoculated with lactic acid bacteria and stored at 8 degrees C for 6 days. Time to detection for the two groups of microorganisms was less than 11 h.