신선한 딸기의 생산 및 유통 단계에서의 미생물 모니터링 및 미생물 오염 방지 또는 저감화 방법 모색

Abstract

This study investigated to determine the microbial contamination levels of strawberries at harvest and distribution stages and to suggest a control measure for reducing the microbial contamination of strawberries by replacing worker’s gloves used at harvest and distribution stages. According to the monitoring results, the contamination levels of total aerobic bacteria (TAB) were in the order of soil (7.12 ± 0.61 log10 CFU/g), gloves (6.06 ± 1.80 log10 CFU/cm2), strawberry (3.28 ± 0.98 log10 CFU/g), and water (3.08 ± 0.55 log10 CFU/mL) at harvest stage. TAB of strawberry at was harvest stage reduced from 3.28 ± 0.98 log10 CFU/g to 1.85 ± 0.21 log10 CFU/g and 2.6 ± 0.30 log10 CFU/g at cold and room temperature storage, respectively. By the replacement of worker’s gloves and distribution temperature, TAB levels of the strawberries were significantly reduced when compared to those of the strawberries treated without replacement of worker’s gloves and distributed at room temperature. For reusing the replaced gloves, washing with a commercial disinfectant, clorox, was effective to reduce microorganisms contaminated on the worker’s gloves. These results demonstrated that appropriate replacement of gloves at the harvest and distribution stages is an effective method for reducing microbial contamination of fresh strawberries.