Fungal microflora in dried persimmon fruits

Abstract

Persimmon fruit due to its short shelf life is often consumed as fresh during the season, but it is also consumed as a dried fruit. In recent years, dried persimmon fruits with mouldy appearance as a whole are sold by small-scale local enterprises. In this study, the fungal profile of both fruit surface and inner parts of the whole dried persimmon fruit was investigated. Mould and yeast counts and osmophilic count were determined by using acidified potato dextrose agar and malt extract agar containing 40% sucrose respectively. Mould isolates were identified considering their cultural and morphological properties. Two different sampling methods were applied and no significant differences were found for osmophilic yeast counts, yeast counts and mould counts except osmophilic mould counts. In this study, it was observed that 95% of the samples were contaminated with moulds and the number of moulds was in the range of <1–4.34 log colony forming units per gram (cfu/g). Seventeen different genera of moulds were isolated from dried persimmon fruits, and the dominant microflora of the analysed samples were Rhizopus spp., Penicillium spp. and Aspergillus spp.