engleski

Toxicogenic Moulds and Mycotoxins in Traditional Dry-Cured Meat Products

Dry-cured meat products are traditional foodstuffs consumed worldwide, but typically produced by European Mediterranean countries. The producing households differ not only in recipes theyfollow, but also in hygienic and environmental conditions that affect the specificity of microflora and quality &safety of these products. The prevalence and diversity of moulds overgrowing traditional dry-cured meat products is proportional to their ripening longevity (often 6 - 18 months), and related to regional environments, especially so with home-based production that employs no microbiological filters and pneumatic barriers, and often exercises no temperature and relative air humidity control. One of the safety aspects is contamination with toxigenic moulds and their secondary metabolites mycotoxins, directly produced by toxicogenic moulds of mostly Aspergillus and Penicillium genera that overgrow the product surface during long ripening. This study covers a total of 250 traditional homemade meat products (107 dry-fermented sausages and 143 dry- cured meats, including dry-cured hams, dry racks, and bacon), sampled during 2020 and 2021 in five Croatian regions. Mould species were identifiedusing both traditional and molecular method, the latter being beta-tubulin and calmodulin loci sequencing with the use of PCR (polymerase chain reaction). Five mycotoxins most important for dry-cured meat products and insofar covered by no legislation at all, i.e., aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), sterigmatocystin (STC), citrinin (CIT), and cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), were analysed using LC-MS/MS (liquid chromatographytandem mass spectrometry). The obtained results were interpreted relative of the producing geographical region and itstypical weather, and relative of the productiontechnology. A total of 535 isolates was retrieved, containing 38 mould species dominated bythe Penicillium (61%) overthe Aspergillus genus (39%). As many as 27% of the analysed samples were contaminated with mycotoxins, in specific with STC in concentration of up to 3.93 µg/kg, OTA in concentration of up to 4.81 µg/kg, and CPA in concentration of up to 335.5 µg/kg, while contamination with AFB1 and CIT failed to be seen. A significant difference in the number of mould isolates was found only among products produced using different technologies, but there exists a difference in predominant species dependent on the region of the product’s origin. Dry-cured meats harboured a higher number of mould isolates than dry-fermented sausages, probablydue to their longer maturation.The Southern region (often compared to subtropical regions) is the only production region whose products contained a higher number of Aspergillusthan of Penicilliumisolates.Although a statistically significant difference in concentration of mycotoxins respective of the production region and technology failed to be documented, mycotoxin occurrence varies across regions. Higher contamination of dryfermented sausages in comparison with dry-cured meats indicatesa possible contamination of spices added to them. The largest number of contaminated samples came from the Eastern and the Western regions with moderate climate, while the lowest number came from the Southern region. Based on the results, it is safe to assume that the determined mycotoxins are mostly produced by the Penicillium rather than the Aspergillus species

Mycotoxincontamination ; Traditional Meat Products ; LC-MS/MS ; Geographical Region

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