Isolation and characterization culturable microbes on the surface of 'Granny Smith' apples treated with electrolyzed water during cold storage

Nandi E Nyamende; Justin W Hoff; Valmary van Brede; Zinash A Belay; Ayodeji B Oyenihi; Oluwafemi James Caleb

doi:10.1007/s10068-022-01148-2

Isolation and characterization culturable microbes on the surface of 'Granny Smith' apples treated with electrolyzed water during cold storage

Food Sci Biotechnol. 2022 Aug 4;31(12):1603-1614. doi: 10.1007/s10068-022-01148-2. eCollection 2022 Nov.

Authors

Nandi E Nyamende¹, Justin W Hoff², Valmary van Brede², Zinash A Belay¹, Ayodeji B Oyenihi³, Oluwafemi James Caleb^{4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Agri-Food Systems and Omics Laboratory, Post-Harvest, and Agro-Processing Technologies (PHATs), Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Private Bag X5026, Stellenbosch, 7599 South Africa.
² Microbiology Laboratory, Post-Harvest, and Agro-Processing Technologies (PHATs), Agricultural Research Council (ARC) Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Private Bag X5026, Stellenbosch, 7599 South Africa.
³ Functional Foods Research Unit, Faculty of Applied sciences, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Bellville, 7535 South Africa.
⁴ Africa Institute for Postharvest Teachnology, Faculty of AgriSciences, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch, 7602 South Africa.
⁵ Department of Food Science, Faculty of AgriSciences, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Stellenbosch, 7602 South Africa.

Abstract

Response of culturable microbes on the surface of apples treated with slightly alkaline electrolyzed water (SAIEW) is largely unexplored. Thus, the aim of this study was to characterize culturable microbes on the surface of SAIEW treated 'Granny Smith' apples using conventional and molecular approach. Results showed that SAIEW treatments and storage duration influenced culturable microbes isolated from the surface of 'Granny Smith' apples stored at 5 °C for 21 days. Enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC-PCR) analysis distinctively identified 27 groups of bacteria from 56 plate isolates. Using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR) typing and RAPD1283 primers, 10 distinct band patterns were identified from 30 fungal isolates. Sequencing of 16S rRNA and intergenic spacer (ITS1 and ITS4) region, identified eight bacteria and four fungi, respectively, to species level. Study showed that SAIEW treatment inhibited growth of Staphylococcus epidermidis, S. capitis, Ochrobactrum soli, and Aspergillus inuii on the surface apples during storage.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-022-01148-2.

Keywords: Decontamination; Intergenic spacer (ITS) region; Malus domestica Borkh; Microbial community; Postharvest management.

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