ESTUDO PARASITOLÓGICO DE ALFACE ( Lactuca sativa L.) EM ALIMENTOS FAST FOOD COMERCIALIZADOS EM FESTAS POPULARES DO CARIRI

The current study aimed to determine the parasitological profile of lettuce served in fast food meal sold on Expocrato, Crato city, and in the Feast of Saint Anthony, Barbalha City, the main popular festivals of these municipalities of Ceara, Brazil. To achieve the proposed objectives, 96 samples of lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ) were collected in the food stands of the popular festivals in Barbalha and Crato cities, 48 of these before the food preparation and 48 after the preparation. The samples were stored and transported to the Parasitology Laboratory at the Regional University of Cariri, where were analyzed following the spontaneous sedimentation technique adapted to vegetables. After the vegetables analysis, was verified that 85.42% were contaminated by protozoa parasitic structures (61.5%) and/or helminths (85.4%), including eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides (83.3%) and Ancylostomidae (15.6%), larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis (22.9%), and cysts of Entamoeba coli (22.9%), Entamoeba histolytica (14.6%) and Giardia lamblia (9.4%). All the lettuces originated from Expocrato were contaminated, while only 12.5% of the samples coming from the Feast of Saint Anthony had parasitic structures. The presence of contaminated lettuce in fast food meals indicate an unsatisfactory hygienic-sanitary conditions, therefore unsuitable for consumption because they may serve as spreading means of intestinal parasitoses. Keywords : Vegetables; contamination; processed foods; enteroparasitosis.