While yeast and mold
counts decreased rapidly during storage, spores exhibited a great resistance.
The death rate of bacteria was slower at 5 °C than at 30 °C.
Low water activity in the product coupled with antibacterial nature
of some of the chemical compounds released in various degradation
reactions may have caused rapid destruction of microbial cells during
storage [31]. As the rate of chemical reactions is slow at lower
temperatures of storage, the decline in microbial number was found
to be slow. A decrease in microbial counts from initial numbers of
4.1×103 to 2.2×103 was also reported [32] in SMP after storage for
6 months at 30 °C.