Attempts for Reducing Microbial Contaminations on Zaghloul Date Palm Fruits by Using Safe Treatments

This study was carried out on palm date fruit Zaghloul from Egypt. Spathes were sprayed three times at growth start, after fruit setting and at one month later with four substances namely Amino acids, Sugar alcohol, Algae extract in concentration of 2% and Licorice root extraction (Glycyrrhiza Glabra L.) in concentration of 7%. Sprayed fruits were harvested at khalal stage and immersion in 1% chitosan as postharvest application and then fruits stored up to 3 months at 0°C and relative humidity (RH) 90-95% in order to study the effect of all treatments on fruit quality and storability of Zaghloul date palm. Our study aimed to describe the dynamic changes of units of colony forming microorganisms of dates during storage period. Samples were collected from different treatments and storage periods. The obtained results indicated that the bacterial load was the highest in sampling amino acids chitosan and licorice root extract chitosan gave the lowest number of bacteria in the two studied seasons, respectively. Sampling control treatment recorded higher for total fungi counts and licorice root extract chitosan recorded lower for total fungi counts in the two studied seasons, respectively