Moulds and yeasts in fruit salads and fruit juices

Abstract

Thirty-eight fruit salad samples including cantaloupe, citrus fruits, honeydew, pineapple, cut strawberries and mixed fruit salads, and 65 pasteurized fruit juice samples (apple, carrot, grapefruit, grape and orange juices, apple cider, and soy milk) were purchased from local supermarkets in the Washington, DC area and tested for fungal contamination. The majority of fruit salad samples (97%) were contaminated with yeasts at levels ranging from <2.0 to 9.72 log 10 of colony forming units per gram (cfu/g). Frequently encountered yeasts were Pichia spp., Candida pulcherrima, C. lambica, C. sake, Rhodotorula spp., and Debaryomyces polymorphus. Low numbers of Penicillium spp. were found in pineapple salads, whereas Cladosporium spp. were present in mixed fruit and cut strawberry salads. Twenty-two per cent of the fruit juice samples tested showed fungal contamination. Yeasts were the predominant contaminants ranging from <1.0 to 6.83 log 10 cfu/ml. Yeasts commonly found in fruit juices were C. lambica, C. sake, and Rhodotorula rubra. Geotrichum spp. and low numbers of Penicillium and Fusarium spp. (1.70 and 1.60 log 10 cfu/ml, respectively) were present in grapefruit juice.