Mold Spectra of Various Foods in Relation to Plating Medium

Freeze-dried strawberries and pears, raisins, sliced roasted almonds, and hazelnuts were investigated for their qualitative and quantitative mycoflora on four different media. The foodstuffs investigated showed relatively low infestation rates. Slightly higher fungus counts were observed in the case of almonds, while strawberries, hazelnuts, raisins, and pears (in decreasing order) were contaminated only to a minor degree. The mycoflora was dominated by molds of the genera Aspergillus and Penicillium and fungi of the Mucoraceae. Most fungus isolates could be enumerated from DRBC, followed by PDA and DG-18, while 7.5% MSA showed only low effectiveness. Minor differences were seen when the number of different species/genera from each medium were compared with each other. DRBC allows the isolation of the broadest spectrum of fungi. Differences between the remaining media were small.