Bacillus strains isolated from several stages of white asparagus production/processing before/after thermal treatment were characterized molecularly by BOX–PCR amplification and 16S ribosomal gene sequencing.

A. Lopez-Lopez, M. A. Rogel-Hernandez, Monica Rosenblueth, and L. Raymundo are thanked for technical assistance. This research was supported by Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (Concytec), Integrated Crop Management Division of International Potato Center (CIP), FDA biol-111/UNALM, DGAPA-PAPIIT IN200709 project, and Red Biofag-Cyted. We are grateful to Dr. Andreas Oswald (CIP) for his support in the collection of samples.

Increasing European and American market demand for high quality canned asparagus from Peru has prompted the need to identify and quantify the microbial spore load on fresh asparagus important in the establishment of safe thermal processes. This 2-phase study was made in an asparagus packing and processing company in Peru. In Phase I of the study, soil samples were taken from different field locations throughout the asparagus cultivars during the growing season. In Phase II, asparagus were taken as they moved through the entire production chain from field harvest during the cannery processing line to the retort.

This research was supported by the Programa Nacional de Innovación para la Competitividad y Productividad (Innovate Perú), under the contract N° 223-FINCyT-IA-2013 and Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico, Tecnológico y de Innovación Tecnológica (FON-DECYT), research project PROCYT N° 316-2011-CONCYTEC-OAJ from Peru.