Blue mold is a fungus that commonly affects fruits that are put into cold storage; the mold develops quite slowly at these cold temperatures. When it is brought to room temperature, green mold (which does not grow well in cold temperatures) predominates most infections where both molds are present.
Blue mold is actually Penicillium italicum and is not as serious as the green mold that occurs in Florida. The spores become airborne and grow large colonies on the surface of fruit that have become infected.
They will go on to contaminated the equipment, water in any tank the fruit comes into contact with, the packinghouse, transit containers, any storage room, and eventually the retail market area if the infected fruit is allowed to travel that far.
The fungus survives outside of the fruit packing industry in soil debris and since the spores are airborne, they can infect fruit on the tree or on the ground whose skin is damaged.
Any infected fruit that is boxed with healthy fruit will cause the whole carton to become infected and care should be taken to remove any diseased fruit from the lot as soon as possible. Before […]
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Canning vegetables and fruits is a popular summertime activity for a lot of people, especially women in rural areas that have too much of one thing or the other grown in their gardens for their families to eat or for them to give away.
Whether it is jams, jellies, marmalades, pickles, soups, or almost anything else, if it can be canned, someone is probably doing it during the harvest season.
A similar process is used in the commercial canning industry, but the boon of doing your own canning from home is that you know exactly what is going into the jar you are putting your food in.
You have complete control over everything that goes inside and your exposure to pesticides and chemicals used on the foods in a canning factory is limited to what you use to protect your own garden from bugs and rodents.
Home canning also uses techniques that are tried and true to preserve food and prevent them from being contaminated by mold, yeast, and bacterias. Botulism and other diseases are caused by these contaminants and the canning techniques used to help prevent them are still in widespread use today.
What can you do […]
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Blue and green mold are two of the most important post-harvest diseases that can affect a citrus crop.
The infection that occurs the most frequently is green mold and it is caused by the mold Penicillium digitatum. It exists in all citrus fruit growing regions and is a serious threat to the citrus industry.
When the fruit is bruised or punctured while it is being harvested or packed, the mold enters the fruit through these wounds and therefore, this disease can be contracted by fruit on the tree, in the packinghouse where the fruit is prepared for the market, while in transit to the store, in storage, and the retail store.
At first, only a white mold is seen growing on the outside of the fruit and later begins to turn green due to the large amount of spores that are being produced on the surface of the fruit. The fruit begins to decay and become soft. It shrivels up and dies as a result.
Blue mold is caused by the fungus Penicillium italicum and it is different from green mold mainly because of the color. The conditions that the two molds grow in are very […]
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