IDENTIFICATION OF WATER QUALITY INFLUENCE ON VEGETABLE AND FRUIT MICROBIOLOGICAL SAFETY (CASE STUDY: TRADITIONAL MARKET AND PLANTATIONS BANDUNG RAYA)

• Main Author: Anindita, Rania
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik saniter dan perkotaan; teknik perlindungan lingkungan
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/61555
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

The habit of eating raw vegetables and fruit, which in Indonesia is known as lalapan, is a good habit because of its maintained nutrition. However, this habit is also the entry point for pathogenic microbes to the human body. Foodborne illness due to contamination can occur at any point from agriculture, crop transportation, food processing, to the end-user stage. Most foodborne illnesses have been traced to contamination in agriculture and use of contaminated water. Quality fresh products are not only obtained from hygienic behavior in production to sales of food ingredients to consumers, but also the source of water used in the production of these fresh products. Typically, fresh produce is grown in open fields where it is constantly exposed to pre-harvest microbial contamination through contaminated irrigation water, agricultural soil, raw manure or inappropriate compost and/or animal waste. Fresh produce can also be contaminated through harvesting equipment, processing plants, field workers, and trade processes throughout the post-harvest stage. This research was conducted by conducting field observations and interviews regarding the handling of vegetables and fruit in traditional markets and plantations, distributing questionnaires to the people of Bandung regarding the handling of vegetables and fruits, taking samples of water sources and samples of vegetables and fruits in traditional markets and plantations. Assessment of the quality status of water sources in traditional markets and plantations is carried out using the Pollution Index method with the quality standard used, namely based on Government Regulation No. 22 of 2021 and the draft R&D-SDA Irrigation Water Quality Criteria. The microbiological quality assessment of the vegetables and fruits studied was compared with the quality standard based on SNI 7388:2009. The quality of water sources in the four traditional markets studied met the quality standards for physical and chemical parameters, but for microbiological parameters they did not meet the quality standards. The hygiene behavior of traditional market traders is quite good, but the quality of traditional market water sources that contain microbes indirectly affects the presence of microbes in vegetables and fruit sold by traditional market traders. The problems that exist in the vegetable and fruit plantations studied are the quality of the irrigation water sources used showing the dominant results being lightly polluted with the most significant parameters polluting the source, namely BOD, %Na, ammonia, chloride, and sulfate, but containing the number of microbes that still meet the requirements. In this case, the positive results of microbes in irrigation water sources can still potentially contaminate the vegetables and fruit grown. The microbiological quality of vegetables and fruit studied showed that the results for tomatoes and lettuce, both from plantations and traditional markets (Kosambi, Sederhana, and Ujungberung) showed the parameter values of Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. which meet the quality standards for microbial contamination allowed in food ingredients, except for samples of tomatoes and lettuce from Cihapit Market which were found to contain Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. with quantities that do not meet quality standards.