Fruit fermentation microbial spoilage

Microbial spoilage appears to be one of the major causes of quality loss of fresh fruits and vegetables by formation of off-flavors, fermented aromas, and tissue decay. The shelf-life of many food products may be accurately predicted by quantifying the population of microbes present on the food product (Zhuang and others 2003). The... 

It could be said that freshly pressed fruit juice provides the truly natural answer to all the requirements of a soft drink thirst quenching, fresh, healthy, flavour-some, nutritional and, of course, natural. So why should it have been necessary to look any further towards the creation of different flavour types and the myriad of drink var ieties that has appealed over the years in beverage markets around the world Necessity, being the mother of invention, has been the driving force in all this. In the early years of the industry there was a real necessity for soft drinks manufacturers, in order to stay in business, to control a major threat to their trade, that of microbial fermentation and spoilage of the bottled product. 

Fruit juices and nectars are highly susceptible to fermentation and other forms of microbial spoilage and with few exceptions it is essential that some form of pasteurisation is employed when these products are packaged. The exceptions that are seen usually relate to freshly squeezed orange (or other) juices that are processed directly from fresh fruit and packaged immediately. These products have a very short shelf life, usually a few days, and are maintained by storage at temperatures between 0 and 5°C. 

---