Effect of preservatives on the germination and growth of thermally injured fungal spores

✍ Scribed by Sankaran, R. ;Leela, R. K.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 266 KB
• Volume: 27
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0027-769X
• DOI: 10.1002/food.19830270310

✦ Synopsis

Few strains of fungi isolated from various foodstuffs were investigated for their sensitivity to heat and subsequent tolerance to two preservatives; namely sorbic acid (SA) and butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). Wide variations in their heat injury and sensitivity to the preservatives were noticed. Mucor was most sensitive to BHA while Trichoderma was most tolerant to SA. Cladosporium, Trichoderma and Fusarium were increasingly sensitive to heat. Heat injury also brought about extended lag periods and increased sensitivity to the preservatives.

Microorganisms subjected to various physical or chemical stresses such as. heating or acidification frequently become debilitated. One consequence of this stress is their increased sensitivity to antimicrobial agents. This has been studied in the case of bacteria and in greater detail in the case of pathogenic bacteria [l-41. However, there is very little work dealing specifically with injury and the consequences in the case of fungi. This basic work is of fundamental importance in the interpretation of microbiological data, particularly where an antimycotic agent is used to combat fungal growth.