Fungal Contaminants of Spices Used in Tunisia

Abstract

Spices are used extensively not only to flavor foods but also for their medicinal properties. To date, no data are available regarding the nature of the toxigenic fungal species that may contaminate these products marketed in Tunisia. The aim of this study was to investigate the natural occurrence of fungi in commonly consumed spices collected from different military catering. A total of 213 samples representing five kinds of spices (Curcuma, red pepper, coriander, caraway and cumin) were tested for the total fungal count following a standardized dilution method. Fungal isolates were identified according to morphological and microscopic characteristics. Fungal contamination showed a large variation, about 88 % of total spices samples were infected with fungi. The highest level of contamination (≥ 5 log 10 CFU/g) was observed in red pepper and caraway samples. Three fungal genera were identified: Aspergillus spp (36.1%), Mucor spp (28.2%) and Penicillium spp (1%). Aspergillus genus was present in 50% of curcuma samples and 48% of coriander samples while it was too low in cumin samples with 16.6%. A total of 95 strains of five Aspergillus species were identified with the dominance of Aspergillus niger (61%) and Aspergillus flavus (30%). Aspergillus niger were present in all spices kinds while Aspergillus flavus prevalence was 32% in curcuma samples, 12% in coriander samples, 10% in red pepper samples and less present in cumin and caraway samples (0.5%).