The Preliminary Study on The Contamination of Warehouse-Stored Pistachios with Aflatoxinogenic Fungi in Kermanshah, Iran: The Tip of The Iceberg

The aim of this study was to determine the amount and type of aflatoxinogenic fungi on samples ofpistachios collected from warehouses in Kermanshah, Iran. Overall, a total of 632 samples were randomly collectedand based on their physical properties the samples were categorized into following groups: (i) raw pistachio withintact shells, (ii) raw pistachio with broken and damaged shells, (iii) salted pistachio with intact shell, and (iv) saltedpistachio with broken and damaged shell. Then 158 subsamples were chosen from each category. The overallcontamination rate was 66%. The fungus contamination rates were significantly lower in salted in compared to rawsamples (p<0.05). The percent contaminated samples recorded 45.6% and 33.3% in salted pistachio with intact shelland salted pistachio with damaged shell, respectively. The most fungal contamination rate was recorded forAspergillus niger followed by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus terreus in all categories. The percentcontamination of samples by Aspergillus niger was significantly higher in raw samples in comparison to saltedsamples. The salted pistachio with damaged shell was significantly lesser contaminated to Aspergillus niger whencompared with the salted pistachio with intact shell (p<0.05). The Penicilium spp. contamination rates weresignificantly higher in damaged shell samples compared to intact shell samples and apparently this type ofcontamination did not decrease in salt-treated samples while, the salted, intact shell samples have shownsignificantly more Aspergillus flavus contamination rates than salted, damaged shell (p<0.05). The Aspergillusterreus contamination rates were significantly higher in intact shell samples compared to damaged shell samples.These toxigenic fungi isolated raises concerns on the potential of pistachio products as a natural substrate prone tothe mycotoxin formation.

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  • Aydin. S., Ertugrul, B., Gultekin, B., Uyar, B., Kir, E.