wines. The alcohol content of the wines was 6e7%. The pH of the
sterilized wine was 3.88e3.92 and that of the non-sterilized wine
was 3.43e3.98. Therewas no significant difference between the pH
of the inoculated wines and that of the control wine (wine not
inoculated with bacteria) during storage (data not shown). The
mean aerobic plate counts for the sterilized and non-sterilized
products were 1.78 (1.21e2.44 log CFU/ml) and 7.79 log CFU/ml
(7.57e8.01 log CFU/ml), respectively. No lactic acid bacteria or fungi
were detected in the sterilized wines (apart from sterilized wine C
[0.63 log CFU/ml]); however, high concentrations of these organisms
(>7 log CFU/ml) were detected in non-sterilized wines (mean
log CFU ¼ 7.66 for lactic acid bacteria and 7.17 for fungi). All nonsterilized
wines contained acetic acid bacteria (2.04e
3.99 log CFU/ml). Coliforms were not detected in any of the
samples.