Effect of Bacteriocin Treatment on Storage and Quality of Postharvest Strawberry Fruit

Abstract

In order to explore the effects of bacteriocin treatment on storage and quality of postharvest strawberry fruit, the inhibitory effects of a bacteriocin, produced by Lactobacillus plantarum, against rhizopus on infected strawberry fruits, was evaluated. Meanwhile, corruption rate, total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity (TA) and vitamin C content were analyzed comparing between bacteriocin LF-1 and nisin treatment. The results show that the bacteriocin LF-1 has a significant inhibitory effect against spore germination of rhizopus. The average spore germinations of rhizopus was only 15.5% when treating with bacteriocin LF-1 at volume percentage of 20%. Freshly harvested strawberries were placed in room temperature and aspersed with bacteriocin LF-1 and nisin for 6 days. In particular, corruption rate, TSS, TA and vitamin C content were respectively 40%, 4.0mg/100g, 60.3% and 63.0mg/100g with bacteriocin LF-1 treating. These data suggest that bacteriocin LF-1 significantly reduced fruit decay and maintained overall quality, thereby extended the shelf-life of the strawberries.