engleski

The impact of dry-cured meat products’ production technology on their contamination with mycotoxins

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi commonly found in the environment. They contaminate a variety of foodstuffs and represent a heterogeneous group of substances with diverse and strong pharmacological and toxic effects on humans and animals. Documented cases of mycotoxin occurrence in dry-cured meat products call for further research into potential contamination sources, especially given an ever more increasing consumption of these nutritionally rich and delicious products. This study investigated into the occurrence of five unregulated mycotoxins considered to be the most important dry-cured meat products' contaminants. The study covered a total of 250 traditional homemade dry-fermented sausages and dry-cured meat products sampled in 2020 and 2021 from five Croatian regions. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), ochratoxin A (OTA), sterigmatocystin (STC), citrinin (CIT), and cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) were analysed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC- MS/MS). As compared to dry-cured meat products (41 %), the number of sausage samples contaminated with mycotoxins was higher (59 %) As for each mycotoxin, the total incidence of CPA and STC contamination of dryfermented sausages and dry-cured meats was equal in both sampling years. The highest CPA (335.50 μg/kg) and STC concentration (3.93 μg/kg) was determined in sausages, while the highest OTA concentration was found in dry-cured meat products (4.81 μg/kg). The mean OTA 183 concentration was higher in dry-cured meat products (1.57±1.82 μg/kg) than in sausages (0.84±0.70 μg/kg). Although significant differences in concentrations of individual mycotoxins between the two types of products were not found (p > 0.05), the number of OTAcontaminated dry-fermented sausages was 3 times higher (75 %) than the number of OTAcontaminated dry-cured meats (25%). The investigated dry-cured meat products differ in their production technology, the most important parameters affecting mycotoxin occurrence thereby being ripening length and environmental conditions during production and storage. Mycotoxin presence can also be linked to physicochemical parameters characteristic of each product type, including pH, water activity (aw), and water & salt content, proven to affect the occurrence of mycotoxins in dry-cured meat products, as well.

mycotoxins, dry-cured meat products, production technology, contamination

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