ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF FUNGI ASSOCIATEDWITH SPOILAGE OF TOMATOES IN GUBRE MARKET

Abstract

Tomato contains large amount of water which makes it more susceptible to spoilage by fungi. These fungi are detrimental to human health, this study was therefore carried out toisolate, characterize and identify the fungi species in spoiled tomatoes. Tomato fruits sold in dif erent areas in gubre, wolkite were used for this study. Thus it was found that fungi were the sourceofspoilage in most of the samples rather than bacteria. Further morphological studies weredoneto determine the fungal strains responsible for the spoilage. Among the fungi, it was foundthatAspergillus niger and Rhizopus stolonifera were found in most of the spoiled samples withafewsamples with A. niger dominating all the plates Pathogenic test result showed that Aspergillusniger had the highest in health tomato fruits while Rhizopus stolonifera had the lowest. Properhandling and adequate storage, facilities must therefore be employed to prolong the shelf lifeof tomato fruits.