Abstract:

This paper reports the observation of changes in total count of bacteria colonies on the surface of scale leaves and on the root cross-section of green asparagus during modified atmosphere (MA) storage and the preliminary isolation and identification of isolated microorganisms. There was a very slow increase in microbial population during the first 10 days of MA storage, followed by a sudden increase, reaching up to 7.40 × 107CFU/g on the 14th day. Subsequently, microbial population decreased slightly with prolonged length of storage time. A total of 24 bacterial strains 8 fungal strains were isolated from the surface of green asparagus that began to decay, which were identified to belong to Pediococcus, Escherichia, Pseudomonas, Erwinia, Micrococcus, Leuconostoc, Staphylococcus, Sporosarcina, Alcaligenes or Acetobacter and to belong to Penicillium, Alternaria, Pythium or Saccharomyces.

Key words: green asparagus, MA storage, microorganisms, separation and identification