ABSTRACT This research article focuses on the survival of pathogens on strawberries at different stages of maturity (unripe, semiripe, and ripe) when stored at temperatures of 15°C, 25°C, and 37°C. The study revealed that both Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogene s survived in all treatment conditions. At 15°C, the maximum reductions in E. coli and L. monocytogenes were observed for unripe strawberries, followed by semiripe and ripe strawberries during a 5‐day storage period. At 37°C, microbial reduction for both pathogens were more pronounced in unripe strawberries, followed by ripe and semiripe strawberries, except for E. coli in semiripe strawberries, which showed an increase in population ( p > 0.05) during a 2‐day storage period. At 25°C, L. monocytogenes displayed a similar trend to that observed at 37°C, whereas E. coli showed the maximum reduction in ripe strawberries, followed by unripe and semiripe strawberries at 2 days. The Weibull model effectively fitted all conditions except for E. coli on semiripe strawberries at 37°C. The findings could provide valuable insights into the survival of pathogens on strawberries and could help in improving strawberry handling.
Pahariya et al. (Thu,) studied this question.