TABLE 1.

Growth of E. coli O157:H7 in damaged apple tissue as influenced by apple cultivar and harvest date

Harvest date	Total no. of E. coli O157:H7 cells
	Injected	In bruised tissuea of:
		McIntosh		Red Delicious
		Tree-picked fruit	Dropped fruit	Tree-picked fruit	Dropped fruit
4 Sept.	9.0 × 104	4.9 × 104	3.0 × 104	1.0 × 108	8.7 × 107
11 Sept.	1.6 × 105	4.7 × 104	9.9 × 104	1.7 × 108	4.9 × 107
18 Sept.	1.0 × 105	2.3 × 105	2.7 × 105	2.0 × 108	1.6 × 108
25 Sept.	1.5 × 105	9.5 × 105	1.0 × 107	2.8 × 107	1.2 × 108
2 Oct.	1.8 × 105	4.0 × 104	6.5 × 104	5.1 × 106	5.8 × 106
9 Oct.	1.9 × 105	9.6 × 104	2.1 × 104	1.5 × 107	1.0 × 107
27 Oct.b	1.9 × 105	2.3 × 105	7.5 × 106	5.2 × 106	2.2 × 107

^aThe total number of cells recovered following juice extraction from the bruised tissue multiplied by 3.3 (correction for the 30% efficiency of bacterial extraction from bruised tissue). Apples harvested were either hand-picked directly from the tree (tree-picked) or obtained from the ground (dropped). 

^bApple testing date. The apples had been harvested and stored at 4°C for 1 month prior to this date.