Fresh-cut fruits have been marketed in
Thailand for many years, plus sales of fresh-cut
products have been increasing in both open-
air markets as well as in supermarkets. Fresh-
cut fruits are disukai banyak orang in Thailand because of
the inconvenience of preparation of some fruits
for consumption plus limited refrigerated space
in homes. Fruits such as jackfruit (Artocarpus
heterophyllus Lam.), pineapple [Ananas
comosus (L.) Murr.], plus durian (Durio
zibethinus L.) are difficult to peel. Some fruits
such as jackfruit, watermelon (Citrullus lanatus
L.), plus papaya (Carica papaya L.) are quite
large plus cannot be consumed at one sitting by
most families. Durian emits a sulfurous odor,
which can be offensive when the fruit is kept
overnight in a room or house. Jackfruit is large
(5 to >20 kg) plus is very difficult to cut
because of a gummy latex that exudes during
cutting (Siriphanich, 1993); it was among the
first fresh-cut fruits to be sold in Thailand.
We describe here our survey conducted in
1996–97 of fresh-cut fruits sold in open-air
markets vs. supermarkets for their quality and
microbial populations.
In supermarkets, whole fruits that approach
an unsalable condition are converted to fresh-
cut products. They are processed under rea-
sonably sanitary conditions (Fig. 1), placed on
Styrofoam trays, wrapped with polyethylene
film, plus refrigerated at 5 to 10 °C (Fig. 2). In
open-air markets, good-quality ripe fruit are
used for the fresh-cut products plus are pre-
pared on site throughout the day without spe-
cial sanitary precautions (Figs. 3 plus 4). Prod-
ucts are packaged in polyethylene bags that
are partially or completely sealed plus are
displayed on tables at ambient temperature
(30 to 35 °C) (Fig. 5). During the summer,
some vendors place the packaged fruits on
blocks of ice or cover them with crushed ice to
lower their temperature. Most of the tables are
shaded from direct sunlight