Abstract Prevention of microbial cross-contamination during postharvest handling is an important step to minimize microbial food safety hazards of produce. Dump tanks and flume systems are widely used in many states (e.g., Florida) to transfer/wash tomatoes, and are one of the most critical points where cross-contamination may occur. This study presents data gathered over three years (2013, 2014, and 2015) on tomatoes collected from five growing regions in Florida to evaluate the risk associated with postharvest processing of tomatoes in commercial packinghouses. A total of 840 and 839 composite samples, from pre- and post-processed tomatoes, respectively, were analyzed for aerobic plate count (APC), and total coliforms (TC) and generic E. coli (EC). The least square mean (LSM) value of APC for all samples (both pre- and post-processed) was 6.0 log CFU/tomato (n = 840), whereas the LSM for TC counts was 4.1 log CFU/tomato (n = 839). Ninety-one (10.8%) and 820 (97.7%) out of 839 samples of post-processed samples had TC and generic EC counts below the detection limit of 1.3 log CFU/tomato, respectively. APC and TC counts in post-processed samples were significantly lower (p

中文翻译：

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一项为期三年的佛罗里达州包装厂调查，以确定加工前和后加工番茄的微生物负荷

摘要 在采后处理过程中防止微生物交叉污染是最大限度减少农产品微生物食品安全危害的重要步骤。倾倒罐和水槽系统在许多州（例如佛罗里达州）被广泛用于转移/清洗西红柿，并且是可能发生交叉污染的最关键点之一。本研究提供了三年（2013 年、2014 年和 2015 年）收集的从佛罗里达州五个种植区收集的番茄数据，以评估与商业包装厂番茄采后加工相关的风险。分别对来自加工前和加工后番茄的 840 和 839 个复合样品进行了需氧菌落计数 (APC)、总大肠菌群 (TC) 和通用大肠杆菌 (EC) 的分析。所有样品（预处理和后处理）的 APC 的最小二乘均值 (LSM) 值为 6。0 log CFU/番茄 (n = 840)，而 TC 计数的 LSM 为 4.1 log CFU/番茄 (n = 839)。在 839 个后处理样品中，有 91 个 (10.8%) 和 820 个 (97.7%) 的 TC 和通用 EC 计数分别低于 1.3 log CFU/番茄的检测限。后处理样品中的 APC 和 TC 计数显着降低（p