Research Article IdentificationofPotentiallyHazardousMicroorganismsand AssessmentofPhysicochemicalDeteriorationofThermally ProcessedKingCoconut(Cocos nucifera var.aurantiaca) WaterunderDifferentProcessingConditionsinSriLanka MaheshikaDilrukshiJayasinghe , 1 SamanthaSanathKumaraMadage , 1 IlmiGangaNamaliHewajulige , 1 ThalawaththeMuhandiramlageDiliniAyeshaJayawardana , 1 AnupamaPrabashiniHalmillawewa , 2 andDivisekeraMudiyanselageWasundaraDevanminiDivisekera 1 1 Food Technology Section, Modern Research and Development Complex, Industrial Technology Institute, Malabe, Sri Lanka 2 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, University of Kelaniya, Kelaniya, Sri Lanka Correspondence should be addressed to Divisekera Mudiyanselage Wasundara Devanmini Divisekera; wasu@iti.lk Received 17 September 2021; Accepted 20 December 2021; Published 27 February 2022 Academic Editor: Chunpeng Wan Copyright © 2022 Maheshika Dilrukshi Jayasinghe et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. King coconut water (KCW) is a sweet relish product that is more prone to rapid quality deterioration, and several safety concerns are emerging due to its inappropriate thermal processing. erefore, the objective of this study was to identify the potential spoilage/ pathogenic microorganisms associated with the processing of KCW, with the assessment of possible physicochemical changes as providing preliminary information required for the thermal process validation of bottled KCW. Samples (n � 6, 150ml/sample) were collected from three different KCW processing facilities at five critical processing steps (P 1 − P 5 ). A facility survey, physicochemical analyses, and microbial enumeration and isolation, along with their molecular identifications, were conducted. It was found that all tested physicochemical properties were significantly changed (p < 0.05) among sampling points at each processing facility. e colour of thermally processed KCW samples has significantly changed (p < 0.05) compared to the fresh KCW, which causes a distinct effect on the appealing quality of the final product. A pattern of initial lower counts with gradually increased microbial counts at intermediate processing steps (1.0 × 10 3 –5.3 × 10 6 CFU/ml) and significantly lowered (p < 0.05) counts after thermal treatment was observed. Among the bacterial and fungal isolates identified, several potential pathogenic bacterial species, such as Pantoea dispersa, Bacillus siamensis, Pseudomonas stutzeri, and Acinetobacter lactucae; a few thermal resistant yeasts, Pichia kudriavzevii, Debaryomyces nepalensis, and Candida carpophila; and moulds, Penicillium citrinum, Microdochium fisheri, and Trichosporon asahii, have survived in the thermally processed KCW. Based on the results of the study, it is suggested that the thermal process validation of KCW should be targeted according to the revealed knowledge on the identified hazardous microorganisms, while adhering to Good Manufacturing and Hygienic Practices with minimized handling time to avoid rapid quality deterioration. 1.Introduction King coconut (Cocos nucifera var. aurantiaca) is endemic to Sri Lanka, which possesses splendid nutritional and thera- peutic values. It is one of the fastest growing export com- modities in the food and beverage sector in Sri Lanka, which has contributed Rs. 600 million of foreign exchange in the year 2020 [1]. Sri Lankan king coconut water is highly demanded in the international market due to its unique quality and sensory characteristics compared to regular green coconuts. It is rich in invert sugars (glucose and fructose), electrolytes (Na + ,K + ,Ca +2 , and Mg +2 ), and amino Hindawi Journal of Food Quality Volume 2022, Article ID 6752088, 15 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/6752088