摘要

Alicyclobacillus spp. have recently become a major issue in the fruit juice industry due to its implication in the spoilage of pasteurized juices/beverages. In this study, lipase and esterase fingerprints of 37 Alicyclobacillus strains and 14 Bacillus strains in apple juice were collected using a five-substrate cocktail including four C8-esters and one C4-diester. Characterization of each strain could be finished in a single assay followed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis for product separation and quantification. The obtained lipase and esterase fingerprints were highly species-dependent. Differences between the relative peak areas of each product for different species were significant. Coupled to chemometric techniques including principal component analysis (PCA) and stepwise linear discriminant analysis (SLDA), the lipase and esterase profiles led to 100 % of correct species identification for Alicyclobacillus and Bacillus strains. This approach is promising, reliable, and with good repeatability and could be used as an alternative tool to discriminate Alicyclobacillus spp. in fruit juices.