Fresh vegetables have been the source of recent outbreaks of food borne illnesses due to contamination by human pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes in the field. The objectives of the present study were to investigate (i) the potential uptake of bacterial surrogates of E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes, E. coli (EC) and L. innocua (LI) respectively, from soil into leafy greens (lettuce and spinach) and onion (green onion and yellow onion) plants, and (ii) the survivability of EC and LIonleafy greens. Mature plants were soilinoculated with a bacterial suspension(ca. 108 cfu/ml) of EC or LI. Spinach and lettuce leaves were also surface inoculated with 1 ml of a culture of EC and LI (ca. 108cfu/ml). Vegetable samples were microbiologically analyzed by plating on Eosin Methylene Blue Agar and Listeria Identification Agar to recover EC and LI respectively. Soil-inoculated E. coli and L. innocua were recovered from green onions, yellow onions and lettuce at internalization frequencies of 14-61%, 26-57% and 0-25% respectively. Moreover, when the leaves of lettuce and spinach were surface-contaminated with EC or LI, they were found to harbour the microorganisms for > 48h and 24 h respectively.