Scanning of Processed Food Contaminating Fungi and Determine the Potential Aflatoxigenic type

Abstract

This study was conducted in the plant protection dept., College of Agriculture, University of Basrah to investigate the food contaminated fungi in several food products involved potato chips, pasta, and popcorn to specify the potential aflatoxigenic species. Eight samples of food products were randomly collected from local market included two samples of pasta, 5 samples potato chips, and one sample of popcorn. The primary isolation was performed on potato dextrose agar (PDA) in 9 cm Petri dishes; the isolated fungi were purified then diagnosed morphologically. The isolation results revealed a presence of several species within three main fungal genera, which included, Penecillium sp., Alternaria alternata , Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. alliaceus, A. candidus, A. fumigatus and A. sclerotiorum in prevalence percentages 43.75 ,35.00 , 18.75, 27.50, 5.64, 3.75, 3.75, 3.75, 3.75 % respectively and frequency percentage 7.15, 2.60, 9.07, 10.69, 0.46, 1.28, 0.46, 1.00% respectively. A. flavus was obtained to examine its ability to produce Aflatoxin using ammonia vapor test. The results revealed that nine isolates of A. flavus showed a possible ability to produce Aflatoxin B1.