3.2.5. Microbiological counts
CA storage prevented the increase in bacterial counts during storage in both green and red peppers strips (Table 4). CA also had some positive effects in controlling yeasts and molds in ripe fruit. In contrast, no differences were detected between CA- and air-stored green pepper strips. Overall, storage of FC peppers under 5 kPa CO2 + 5 kPa O2 might be useful to control microbial populations. The effects were more beneficial in the case of ripe strips. The effect of CA in bell peppers on microbial growth has not been studied in detail to date. In general for whole peppers it is accepted that moderate effects are observed in the control of deteriorative organisms (Akbudak, 2008, Koide and Shi, 2007 and Saltveit, 1997). In the present study storage under 5 kPa CO2 + 5 kPa O2 reduced decay and bacterial multiplication. Luo and Mikitzel (1996) reported that decreasing O2 alone was effective to decrease decay. Further work is needed to determine whether or not the lower bacterial population maintained in CA stored fruit resulted from a direct action of the storage atmosphere on the microorganisms or through an indirect effect on tissue integrity which would result in lower nutrients availability.
Table 4.
Aerobic mesophilic bacteria and molds and yeast in red and green pepper stripes stored at 5 °C and 90–95% RH in air (control) or under 5 kPa O2 and 5 kPa O2 (CA) during storage for 7 or 12 days.a
Values followed by different letters indicate significant differences based on a Fisher test at a level of significance of α ≤ 0.05 (n = 2).