부산대학교 도서관

Aromatic young coconut is a well-known Thai fresh produce around the world. It has been a major economic significance with a great demand from both national and international markets. The commercialized ready to serve fresh coconut was prepared by trimming and PVC film wrapping; then distributed to local and worldwide market. In order to prolong its shelf-life against microbial growth and color appearance change, antimicrobial and antibrowning agents are considered using during postharvest treatment on the coconut. Sulfiting agents such as potassium metabisulfite (KMS) are generally used to overcome both problems. Therefore, this postharvest treatment is purposely to inhibit microbial growth and indirectly to prolong its shelf-life. Nonetheless, microbial growth still has been found randomly. This study was performed to study microbial distribution during the storage at 2°C and the RH around 81-83% of 3% KMS-treated and PVC film wrapped young coconut. Through the 4 week-cold storage, microbial distribution of the outer area and coconut water of the trimmed coconut were analyzed. Aerobic plate count (APC) was found to be in the range of 0.83-2.01 log CFU/fruit, whereas yeast and mold (YM) was found less than 0.17 log CFU/fruit. For coconut water, APC and YM were found to be in the range of n.d.-1.21 log CFU/ml and n.d.-0.23 log CFU/ml, respectively. In addition, at the shoulder area of the trimmed coconut, TPC was observed to be mostly found in the range of 0.10-1.36 log CFU/fruit through the cold storage period. Nevertheless, coconut water was analyzed for its pH, total soluble solid and titratable acidity which ranged in pH 6.26-6.97, 7.53-8.53°Brix, and 0.031-0.040%, respectively. Outer color changes were analyzed as browning index which ranging from 19.26-27.16. The data suggested that using low temperature together with KMS was successfully inhibit some microorganisms particularly yeast and mold, while it was slightly affected chemical properties of the coconut juice. Interestingly, the distribution of total microorganisms was found mostly at the top area of the trimmed coconut when it was compared to other areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]