DisplayTitle

Mycoflora Distribution in Dry-Milled Fractions of Corn in Argentina

¹Facultad de Bromatología, Universidad Nacional de Entre Ríos, Entre Ríos, Argentina. ²Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Buenos Aires, Argentina. ³Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. ⁴Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. ⁵Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Present address: Departamento de Industrias, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428DHQ) Núñez, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Fax: 011-4631-1148. ⁶Corresponding author. E-mail: resnik@di.fcen.uba.ar.Phone/fax: 54 011-4631-1148. ⁷Centro de Investigación en Micotoxinas, Universidad Nacional de Luján, Argentina.

Corn samples and different commercial dry-milled fractions collected from an industrial mill in Argentina were surveyed for fungal contamination. The percentage of Fusarium isolates in whole corn kernels among all fungi recovered was 2.0–97.0%; in corn grits, it was 2.6–50.0%. Maximum levels in the other fractions were 5.2 × 10⁵ colony forming units per gram (CFU/g) in germ and bran, 5.0 × 10³ CFU/g in C flour, and 2.7 × 10³ CFU/g in corn meal. The high initial contamination from whole corn is reflected in germ and bran, which is destined for animal consumption, but not in corn meal. F. verticillioides and Aspergillus flavus were the most frequent species in the whole corn kernel, but F. verticillioides was prevalent in all the other industrial fractions. Other potentially toxigenic fungi that were isolated included Aspergillus parasiticus, Alternaria alternata, Penicillium citrinum, and P. funiculosum. In this first report about mold contamination in corn industrial dry-milled fractions in Argentina, the high fungal contamination level observed in the stored corn could indicate the necessity to improve the hybrid quality and the storage conditions to diminish the risk of mycotoxin occurrence.