## 4 Discussion
For safety reasons and according to international food standards [27], the presence of _Salmonella_ is not acceptable. The high concentration of _Salmonella_ spp. counts detected on mango peels in stage 4 of ripening might be explained by different factors such as natural maturity of the mango fruit after post-harvesting, possible mechanical damage, physiological disorders non-detectable at the moment of harvesting, along with the humidity and inappropriate storage conditions that might increase the contamination by several commensal microorganisms including _Salmonella_. The _Salmonella_ positive mango fruits and wedges samples were not compliant with the safety criteria and their marketing should not be permitted, albeit the impact on consumer health cannot be estimated. Nonetheless, mango is a perishable fruit by nature and must be stored and manipulated accordingly to minimize microbial contamination. Thus, the presence of microorganisms in ready-to-eat mango wedges might be related to the vendors' poor handling and storage. Once cut, the fruit slices are good substrates for microorganism growth, due to their organic composition and high-water activity, thus are highly susceptible to contamination. Therefore, a sanitation step or treatment with antimicrobials is mandatory. Similar studies conducted on street food in Brazil [43] and South Africa [44] showed high levels of bioindicators (coliforms and _E. coli_), suggesting that food handlers increase contamination. Based on the antibiotic results of the selected isolates found in the mango wedges, we conclude that _E. coli_ spp. and _Enterobacter_ spp. isolates were highly resistant to all antibiotics tested (Table 3). The presence of antibiotic-resistant isolates was found in both mango fruit peel and remaining pulp indicating the risk of ingesting a high number of resistant bacteria unless prophylactic disinfection and appropriate storage conditions are considered. Contamination with antibiotic-resistant strains is of concern as food can act as a vector for the transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes to humans [45; 46]. Applying a combination of different peptide doses of two native lactic bacterial species, which efficiently inhibit various microorganisms simultaneously in ready-to-eat fruits was recently demonstrated in pineapple [22]. As the fruit matrix is a complex structure, the peptide combinations must be individually tested for their efficacy to inhibit microorganisms that invade the fruits during storage. The peptide dose, pH, and acidity of the fruit matrix simultaneously might contribute to the inhibitory activity by shifting the peptide through the target cell wall [47]. However, as a proof of concept to verify the feasibility of using edible peptide extract cocktails as antimicrobials in cut fruits, we extended the work to mango wedges. In the present study, all designed antimicrobial cocktails showed the capacity to diminish concurrently five-strain bacterial mixture in mango wedges (Figure 2; Figure 3). Nonetheless, three antimicrobial combinations (T1, T2, and T5) showed a greater bactericidal performance than nisin (T7). A previous study indicated that a combination of nisin from _Lactococcus lactis_ with curvaticin 13 from _Lactobacillus curvatus_ strain SB13 had a greater bactericidal effect against _Listeria monocytogenes_ ATCC15313 than the use of a single bacteriocin [48] in vitro. The peptides from both lactic acid bacteria strains used in this study were previously detected as potential antimicrobials [27]. The inhibitory efficacy of T1 formulation, for example, was already demonstrated in fresh-cut pineapple [22], but its effectiveness was greater in mango, expanding its application in acidic fruits. Although the difference in the overall cell reduction between T2 and T5 was not significant (Table 4), we suggest that from the commercial perspective, the use of CFS-, rather than PP-cocktail, might have advantages as no extra purification step is needed and the cost of production decreases.