This study dealt with the isolation, characterization, and identification of the fungal microflora of frozen blueberries imported from Canada. The thermal inactivation rates of the rarely studied isolated heat-resistant molds, Devriesia spp. and Hamigera striata, in naturally and artificially contaminated blueberry slurries were also determined. The D-values of naturally contaminating Devriesia spp. at 70, 80, 85, and 90 degrees C were 714, 114, 44.4, and 14.1 min, respectively. The D-values of H. striata at 70, 80, 85, and 90 degrees C were 909, 286, 42.6, and 10.3 min, respectively. The z-values calculated from the thermal death time curves were 11.0 and 6.9 degrees C for Devriesia spp. and H. striata, respectively. Results also showed that in both test mold species, the naturally occurring molds had significantly higher thermal resistance than did the artificially contaminated counterparts. The results established by this study may be used by blueberry processors to prevent losses due to spoilage caused by the heat-resistant microorganisms.

In this study, the feasibility of the application of nanofiltration to recover excess benzoic acid from cranberry juice was investigated. Different kinds of commercial nanofiltration membranes were screened for their ability to separate benzoic acid from cranberry juice. There were 7 kinds of membranes, including HC50, NFT50, G5, Desal-DK, DRA4510, UTC60 and NTR7250, which showed significantly lower rejection of benzoic acid than that of other components in cranberry juice, such as sugars, other organic acids (citric acid, malic acid and quinic acid) and anthocyanins, with a difference of over 40 %. The effect of pH on nanofiltration was also investigated; the separation was very effective at pH 4.5. The rejection of benzoic acid was negative (lower than −40 %) and significantly different from the rejection of other components. It is promising to recover benzoic acid from cranberry juice by nanofiltration.

The paper focused on the influence of operative conditions on the separation of benzoic acid from 10 °Brix cranberry juice by cross-flow nanofiltration with a plate and frame pilot scale (DDS Lab Module Type 20 system). Six kinds of commercial nanofiltration membrane were investigated. The results showed that the rejection of benzoic acid was significantly lower than that of other components in cranberry juice, including sugars and other organic acids. In a range of 2–7.5 L/min, feed flow rate slightly affected the performance of nanofiltration. Higher temperatures resulted in higher permeate flux and lower rejection of benzoic acid, whereas rejection of sugar and organic acid was stable at a high value. In a range of 2.5–5.5, pH also significantly affected the separation of benzoic acid and negative rejection against benzoic acid was observed at pH 4.5 with some of the membranes. This implies that pH 4.5 is considered as an optimum pH for benzoic acid separation from cranberry juice. The lower permeate flux caused a lower rejection of benzoic acid and negative rejection of benzoic acid was observed at the low permeate flux. Pretreatment by ultrafiltration with CR61PP membranes could improve the permeate flux but insignificantly influenced the efficiency of separation. The results also indicated that NF99 and DK membranes can be effectively used to separate benzoic acid from cranberry juice.

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