Solute conditions inside cooked bean pods were adjusted by soaking the pods in different solutions. Interactions of Ca" and Na' showed increasing firmness as Ca" concentration was raised and decreasing firmness as Na+ was raised. Chelating agents removed Ca" and decreased firmness. Higher p H gave lower firmness except in the presence of excess Ca". Ihe presence of Na' decreased the effect of pH on firmness. Urea decreased firmness when pods had been previously treated with a chelator. l h e effects of treatments on firmness were related to the behavior of pectin solutions and gels.

Pasteurization studies were conducted on 29 yeasts and five lactic acid bacteria. In general the yeasts were more heat resistant in wine than were the bacteria. The one exception was a strain ofLactobacillus fructivorans that gave an average D-value of 1.7 min at 60 C. Alcohol was the wine constituent that had the greatest effect on resistance; D-values for all test species were inversely related to the ethanol concentration. The response of organisms to other factors such as pH, sugar, and sulfur dioxide varied with the species.

A total of 575 packages of frozen blanched vegetables representing 17 products packed in 24 factories located in 12 states were examined for numbers and kinds of coliforms. The organisms were recovered from over 90% of the samples with the average counts of total coliforms being over 100 per g. Thirty‐seven percent were positive for fecal coliforms (FC) using a 44.5°C incubation, with all products except broccoli yielding an average count of less than 50 per g. Escherichia coli was recovered from only 29% of the FC‐positive samples. Other species which were responsible for a positive fecal coliform test were Klebsiella pneum oniae, Enterobacter cloacae, E. agglomerans, E. aerogenes, and Citrobacter freundii. Incubation at 45.5°C eliminated only C. freundii. Fecal coliforms in vegetables negative for E. coli may be the result of raw vegetable transmission to processing equipment followed by culture development and transfer to foods being processed.

Trials in which frozen vegetables had been inoculated with known concentrations of Geotrichum filaments showed that two steeping and washing procedures permitted recoveries of over 70%. Application of one method to frozen blanched vegetables processed in 24 factories revealed 16% of the packages to contain Georrichum with an average count of 170 filaments per 500g in the Geotrichum-positive samples. There was little correlation between aerobic plate counts and the incidence of the mold. In-plant studies revealed that most of the Geotrichum filaments on pre-blanch samples of green beans were removed by blanching and hydro-cooling.