Recently, the use of ready-to-eat vegetables has become important for increasing demand of consumers, but minimal processing of vegetables could imply quality loss of these products. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of harvest time and minimal processing on total antioxidant activity and the evolution of spoilage bacteria of different leaf crops (rocket salad, endive and curly endive), in order to assess food quality and safety. The evolution of total antioxidant activity and microbial population during packaging and storage was monitored through standard methods on fresh sample, at the second day of commercial life of packaging and after one week of storage at 4 0 C, several times during a year (2007). Harvest time, packaging process, and their interaction significantly (P≤0.001) affected the total antioxidant activity in all species. In curly endive and endive was observed a high decrease at the second day of commercial life of packaging (65% and 55%, respectively) while rocket salad showed the lowest reduction of total antioxidant activity (4%). Storage at 4 0 C for one week significantly affected only the total antioxidant activity of rocket salad (8% of decrement respect to the second day of commercial life of packaging) (P≤0.001). In all analyzed samples quantitative recovery of Aerobic Mesophilic Count, pseudomonas spp and fungi showed that microbial rates was reduced sensibly from whole fresh vegetables to minimally processed products of about two log units, but increased after packaging and at the end of shelf-life.