significantly from 5.6 logs to 7.7 logs during 21 days of storage. But
for treated tomatoes, total mesophilic populations initially
increased on day 7 before falling below 5.6 logs on day 21of storage
for all combined treatment groups. The initial background mold
and yeast populations (4.6 log CFU g1, Table 3) also decreased due
to the combined treatment for all eleven treatment groups. During
storage mold and yeast load increased to about 8 logs for untreated
control tomatoes but for tomatoes that received combined treatment,
background mold and yeast population remained low (