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ARS plant
physiologist Robert Saftner (right) and microbiologist Arvind Bhagwat process
and assay the cut-surface color of freshly sliced Fuji apples. They are
developing formulations that maintain the quality of fresh-cut fruit products.
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Making Fresh-Cut Apples Convenient and Safe
By Rosalie Marion
Bliss July 14, 2006
A new wash treatment developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists provides antibrowning as
well as antimicrobial benefits to fresh-cut apples.
Microbiologist
Arvind
Bhagwat led the project. He worked with plant physiologist
Robert
Saftner and horticulturist
Judith
Abbott. They are with the ARS Produce Quality and Safety Laboratory (PQSL)
in Beltsville, Md.
Thanks to ARS research, managers at schools, grocery stores and
restaurants nationwide have already been providing customers with sliced apples
that stay fresh for several weeks. This ARS team now has discovered a dip
solution--PQSL 2.0--that keeps sliced apples fresh and controls pathogens.
Volunteer sensory panelists tasted four slices of Fuji and four slices
of Granny Smith apples. Each slice had been dipped that day in one of four
different commercial or ARS wash treatments including PQSL 2.0. The panelists
then reported any differences detected in aroma and flavor. All four treatments
were found to maintain the apple slices cut-surface color, firmness,
aroma and flavor similarly.
In a separate test, the researchers exposed five pathogens to fresh
batches of each of the same four antibrowning wash treatments for two hours.
Formula PQSL 2.0 reduced levels of all five pathogens in the wash solutions by
99.999 percent. PQSL 2.0 also came out ahead in reducing microflora on
sanitized apples after slicing. Such native bacterial and fungal populations
can accelerate spoilage over time.
Further preliminary studies have shown that a newer version of PQSL
2.0 controlled, or eliminated, two pathogens on apple slices. Low doses of
Listeria and Salmonella had been put directly onto apple slices
along with the new formula, and the pathogens were found to be inhibited, or
completely eliminated, after one, two and three weeks.
Read
more about this research in the July 2006 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of
Agricultures chief scientific research agency.