Occurrence of microorganisms and aflatoxins in the production of artisanal puba flour production in Tocantins, Brazil

Abstract

This work aimed to characterize the microbiota involved in the production of puba flour in Palmas, Brazil, and to verify the presence of aflatoxins in this food product. Counts of mesophilic heterotrophic bacteria, Lactobacillus spp., Streptococcus spp. and yeasts were done by dilution and plating on specific media. The results showed the presence of high populations of all microbial groups screened (>107 CFU g-1). Among lactobacilli, L. plantarum was the most frequent species, representing 41.6 % of total isolates of this genus. The most frequent yeasts were Candida castelli, C. ethanolica, C. krusei, Pichia membranifaciens and Trichosporon asahii. Counts of total and fecal coliforms obtained by the chromogenic Colilert technique were high mainly in samples of fermenting water, above 800 and 2,000 MPN 100 mL-1 respectively. Nevertheless in the final product those numbers were reduced considerably to less than 70 and 1 MPN g-1 respectively, values considered within the legal limits established by regulations. ELISA and thin layer chromatography showed no occurrence of aflatoxins, differently from other studies elsewhere. With this we can to observe that the products analyzed fit the Standards of the Brazilian Ministry of Health.

Keywords

• aflatoxin
• puba flour.
• Manihot esculenta Crantz
• fermentation
• microorganisms