Internal contamination and spoilage of harvested apples by patulin-producing and other toxigenic fungi

A variety of microfungi including members of the toxigenic genera Alternaria, Penicillium and Fusarium were isolated from the apple cores. The predominant moulds were Alternaria, Cladosporium, Penicillium and Fusarium spp. recovered from 50, 22, 33 and 23% of the analyzed samples, respectively. Less common were Ulocladium spp., Botrytis cinerea and Aureobasidium pullulans found in less than 4% of the samples. Yeasts were found only in 2% of the samples. Apple cores from all varieties tested showed a high degree of mould contamination.