Unraveling and comparing bacterial community signatures and functions of postharvest strawberries packaged with different films during storage

The invisible foodborne pathogens on strawberry surface endanger its food safety. Therefore, detecting and controlling the foodborne pathogens are crucial for food safety of strawberry. This study comprehensively detected and compared their surface bacterial communities under different packaging films (polyethylene film, gelatin film, and gelatin composite film) through high-throughput sequencing. Compared with fresh strawberries, the dominant bacterial genus of strawberries packaged with different films changed from Rosenbergiella to Acinetobacter after storage. However, few foodborne pathogens and spoilage-related bacteria were found in gelatin composite film-packaged strawberries (S-CG), while harmful bacterial genus of Pantoea and Erwinia were detected with high relative abundances in other films-packaged strawberries. Furthermore, the predication analysis of phenotype and metabolism indicated that Pantoea and Erwinia were the main biofilm-forming and stress-resistance bacteria, which increased potential pathogenic. Fortunately, gelatin composite film maintained the relative abundance of pathogenic bacteria on S-CG surface at a low level. Therefore, this work contributed to evaluating the pathogenic of bacteria community on strawberries during storage and providing a theoretical foundation for active packaging film to control surface pathogenic bacteria of strawberries. •Active packaging decreased the relative abundance of Pantoea and Erwinia.•Pantoea and Erwinia were the main biofilm-forming and pathogenic bacteria.•Most bacteria on strawberry surface exhibited positive correlation with each other.•Active packaging effectively decreased the pathogenic of bacterial community.