Abstract: In the presence of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris, vanillic acid and vanillin can be converted into guaiacol, which can be further converted into a reddish-brown product by peroxidase. Based on this color reaction, a method was developed to spectrometrically detect the presence of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris in real systems. In static culture, BAM medium with the addition of 100μg/kg vanillic acid was the most favorable for guaiacol formation. The peak value of guaiacol concentration was delayed along with the decrease of bacteria concentration. A visible color was formed in medium and its OD470 could reach up to 1.0 or even more after 21 hours of culture at the initial spore density of 3 spores/mL. And the same result also was obtained in an apple juice system. Thus, this method can allow rapid, simple and sensitive detection of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris in fruit juice.

Key words: juice, Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris, guaiacol, spectrophotometer, color reaction