Epiphytic microbiota of sour cherry (Prunus cerasusL.) in integrated and organic growing

Abstract

The surface microbial contamination is of great interest, since these microbes can be potential sources of food-borne diseases. The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the microbial surface contamination of sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) produced by integrated and organic cultivation methods in Hungary. The effects of the growing area, year, and cultivar were studied on 62 samples. According to the results, the average microbial contamination of sour cherry is within a certain range, independently from the cultivar, growing area, and year. The frequency distribution of the surface bacterial, mould and yeast counts also did not show significant differences between the growing methods or cultivars. Principal component analysis ranked the sour cherry samples into seven groups on the basis of the level of microbial contamination. The discriminant analysis proved the correctness of the grouping. The grouping was independent from cultivars, growing methods, and years. No examined food-borne pathogen Salmonella spp. or Listeria spp. were found on the surfaces of sour cherry.