The health risks posed by Salmonella spp., Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium through the consumption of raw vegetables and vegetarian burger patties necessitates the needs for the optimization of analytical approach for their detection and enumeration in the raw vegetables, which served as potential vehicles for transmission of these pathogenic microorganisms. We sought to establish a rapid, economic and sensitive method to detect and determine the load of Salmonella spp., Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium using the most probable numbers (MPN) in combination with the multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR). From the naturally contaminated one hundred and seventy five samples tested (n = 175), the overall prevalence of Salmonella spp. was 28%, Salmonella Enteritidis was 20% and Salmonella Typhimurium was 14.3%, respectively. The MPN-MPCR is a quantitative method to determine the density of cell concentration of Salmonella in all the samples (Salmonella spp. ranged from <3 to 53 MPN/g; S. Enteritidis ranged from <3 to 24 MPN/g; and S. Typhimurium ranged from <3 to 15 MPN/g). The combination of the MPN-MPCR is an efficient, simple, fast analytical method for the detection and enumeration of Salmonella spp., Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium in vegetables and the vegetarian burger patties since it can significantly reduce time and labour with analysis completed within 2 days, as opposed to the traditional confirmation method that can take up to 5 days for unequivocal identification of species.

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Generally, there are two types of beekeeping: the Apini tribe and the Meliponini tribe. Both tribes produce honey and have a good demand due to their health benefit properties. Considering the influence of diverse factors on honey composition and the lack of studies, establishing quality standards for stingless bee honey (Meliponini tribe) is still challenging and need to do to protect the consumer. In this sense, this study aimed to determine the total soluble protein content and compare the SDS-PAGE profile between two species of Apini tribe and two species of Meliponini tribe. Protein concentrations in honey samples were varied and resulted in a micro component in honey. SDS-PAGE profile for Meliponini tribe showed more number of protein bands compared to protein from Apini tribe. The unique protein bands that appeared in the Meliponini tribe may have potential as a biomarker to justify the authenticity and quality of that honey, which is known as Unique Kelulut Factor (UKF).

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