ABSTRACT
Many people assume that growth, cultivation, and harvesting of crops are the ini tial points in the food system. However, several factors that come into play before crops are even planted can affect the ultimate microbiological safety of foods. The sanitary quality of the soil in which vegetables are grown can directly influence these products. For example, croplands on which farm animals have recently been grazing are much more likely to be contaminated with organisms of fecal origin. Moreover, some foodbome pathogens can survive for months or years in soil. For example, Watkins and Sleath (31) demonstrated that Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes could survive for months in sewage sludge applied to agricultural soils. Outbreaks of Escherichia coli 0157: H7 (4, 2) and Cryptosporidium (2) in apple cider have also led to the realization that tree-borne fruits could become con taminated with fecal contaminants. While one would normally not think of treeborne fruit as being highly at risk to acquire fecal contamination, it was suspected that the problem occurred when farms used apples that had been lying on the ground (so-called drops) making cider. Sources of the fecal contamination could be either domestic or wild animals (27).
