Fruit juice and puree characteristics influence enrichment requirements for real-time PCR detection of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris

Background: Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris is a key spoilage causing bacterium commonly found in fruit juices and purees. Commercial real-time PCR based assays to detect this organism are available, but reportedly require 48 hours of enrichment for detection. The underlying hypothesis of this study was that fruit juice and puree characteristics influence the enrichment requirements of this organism, and that in some matrices, the organism can be detected within 24 hours even when present at...