Microbiota of domestic storage compartments (fridge and fruit baskets)

Fresh fruits and vegetables (FFV) represent the largest part of food waste at the consumer level. This waste directly results from FFV physiological and microbiological spoilage, itself intricately linked to behavioral factors such as storage or hygiene practices.The objective of this metabarcoding analysis, based on the sequencing of both 16S and ITS2 , was to describe the microbiota of domestic storage compartments (fruit babsket and fridge) at 49 French volunteer households, using a citizen science approach. We found that FFV storage compartments were reservoirs of fungi and bacteria including known FFV spoilage taxa. Surprisingly, households accounted for most of the differences in microbiota composition, for both bacteria and fungi, across samples, while storage compartments had little impact.