| Popis: |
Globally, 140 million children under five years are stunted, and wasting still impacts the lives of over 47 million children, especially during the complementary feeding period. Improved formulations of complementary foods (CFs) with animal-source foods (ASFs) is an important strategy to improve infant and young child feeding. However, ASFs are expensive in many food-insecure settings where edible insects abound. Some insects as Tenebrionidae species are edibles and could, in future, be used as CFs. It is therefore important to characterize the effects of other organisms present in flours that could interact with insects, such as mycotoxigenic fungi, that produce mycotoxins. Insects may trigger fungi growth and mycotoxin production therefore it will be important to evaluate the possible influence of insects in maize flour on the production of mycotoxins (aflatoxins) as a contribution to a better understanding of this complex interaction and to the safety of future alternative CFs. Maize was collected directly from fields was stored at −4 ◦C and then ground and sieved to obtain maize flour. The maize flour was incubated under appropriate conditions of 30 ◦C ± 2 ◦C and 70% ± 5% RH for eight weeks on its own (control), inoculated with A. flavus conidia (fungus assay), inoculated with T. castaneum adults (insect assay) or inoculated with both organisms (mixed assay). Aflatoxins analysis were performed in all samples by liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD). Results showed that, when both organisms were together, the mycotoxins detected in maize flour were far higher than when the fungi were on their own, suggesting that the presence of insects may contribute positively to fungi development and mycotoxin production. This is the first study on this issue. Further investigation would benefit from clarification on the mechanisms leading to the nature of the detected interactions and to contribute to the safety of alternative foods, specially those that could be used, in future, for children consumption. Acknowledgements: FCT/MCTES for funding with national funds related to the SafeGrains project (PTDC/ASP-PLA/28350/2017) and to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020). N/A |
