Bacteriological Survey of Raw "Soul Foods" Available in South Carolina

Bacterial counts of "soul foods" obtained from 10 farm families and 10 supermarkets were determined. Total plate count means for farm family vegetables ranged from 1.5 × 10⁶/g to 2.9 × 10⁶/g, and 2.0 × 10²/g to 3.1 × 10⁵/g for vegetables purchased at the retail sales establishments. Pig offal samples with the highest total plate counts were pigtails, 4.8 × 10⁸/g and maws, 4.5 × 10⁸/g from farm families; and pigtails, 2.8 × 10⁹/g, neck bones, 2.4 × 10⁹/g from the retail sources. Fecal coliforms were not detected in any of the vegetable samples but were isolated from 24% of the pig offals. Sixty percent of all of the foods were positive for Salmonella and 96% were positive for coagulase-positive Staphylococcus aureus . Clostridium perfringens was only detected in one sample, chitterlings from a retail source.