Ocorrência de fungos e aflatoxina M1 em bebidas lácteas comercializadas em Alagoas

Abstract

The Aspergillus flavus is one of the main kinds of fungus, among those that demand attention in the agricultural area, because it contaminates many cultivation and produces aflatoxin. The aflatoxin M1 is a toxic metabolite resultant from the biotransformation of the aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) co-secreted with milk from animals that ingested food contaminated by AFB1. This fact is a relevant public health issue due to the carcinogenic e mutagenic effects of the aflatoxin. The increasing consume of UHT milky beverages, as a substitute for the milk, is a result of their organoleptic characteristics. There are, at least, 16 non-fermented milky beverages brands available for sale. Most of them are chocolate flavored. Considering that, this essay’s objective is to analyze and quantify, in 10 UHT milky beverages sold in Maceió-AL, the contamination levels by aflatoxin M1. The fungus identification process was made according to the method described in the Compendium of methods for the microbiological examination of foods (1992). For the aflatoxin M1 quantification, using the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), the method used was the one of IAL (2008) adapted. 14 kinds of fungus were isolated, it must be mentioned that the Aspergillus flavus and Penicillium sp. were amoung the findings. The levels of aflatoxin M1 ranged from 0,02 to 0,48 + 0,17 μg/L that suggests the necessity of better practices for production and storaging. These “better practices” should control the fungus grownth and the consequent contamination by their toxic metabolite.