Fac-simile Scheda Linee di Ricerca - Federalimentare

Dati pubblicati inerenti il tema di ricerca:1. Battilani P., Pietri A., Giorni P., Formenti S., Bertuzzi T., Toscani T., Virgili R. andKozakiewicz Z. 2007. Penicillium populations in dry-cured ham manufacturing plants. Journalof Food Protection, 2007, 70, 4, 975-980.Seven ham manufacturing plants were sampled for 1 year to assess the mycoflora present in the air and on hams,with special attention given to potential mycotoxin producers. Temperature and relative humidity were recordedin the ripening rooms. Maturing rooms held hams from 2 to 3 through 6 to 7 ripening months, and aging roomsheld hams for the following 6 to 7 months, until the 14-month ripening point, when they were ready for themarket. Mean temperatures and relative humidities registered during the study were 14.9°C and 62.4%,respectively, in maturing rooms and 16.3°C and 57.6% in aging rooms. Aspergilli and penicillia, potentialmycotoxin producers, were isolated in all the plants from the air and the ham. Aspergilli represented 5% of theisolates, while penicillia were largely dominant, with Penicillium nalgiovense being the most represented species(around 60% of the penicillia), followed by Penicillium nordicum, with 10 and 26% of the penicillia isolated,respectively, from the air or the ham. Ochratoxin A production ability, checked in vitro at 25°C, was observed in50% of the P. nordicum isolates obtained both from the air and the ham. Air and ham surface contamination bypenicillia was greater in the ripening rooms, where higher temperatures were registered. A certain correlationwas also observed between air and ham surface contamination. On the basis of this study, P. nordicum, theochratoxin A producer that is notable on proteinaceous substrates, is normally present in ham manufacturingplants in Italy, even though not a dominant species. Further studies are necessary to clarify and ensure if drycuringconditions minimize the potential risk of ochratoxin A formation in the product.2. Pietri A., Bertuzzi T., Gualla A. and Piva G. 2006. Occurrence of ochratoxin A in raw hammuscle and pork products from Northern Italy. Italian Journal of Food Science, 1, 18: 1-8.The occurrence of ochratoxin A (OTA) in different pork products was surveyed: Twenty-two samples of rawham muscle were obtained from industrial plants for ham production and 84 samples of dry-cured ham (n=30),cooked ham (n=12), salami (n=12), coppa (n=18) and würstel (n=12) were collected from retail outlets located inthe Emilia region (northern Italy). After extraction and immunoaffinity clean-up steps, OTA was quantified usingHPLC fluorescence detection. The limits of detection and quantification (LOQ) for the method used were0.01 and 0.03 µg/kg, respectively. OTA was detected in 47% of the samples, but only 24% contained OTAabove the LOQ. High levels of OTA were only found in some drycured ham samples: 5 (17%) exceeded 1.0µg/kg, the limit set by the Italian Ministry of Health guideline and 2 (7%) exceeded 10 µg/kg; however, the medianwas only 0.02 µg/kg. The other pork products showed lower OTA contamination that was always below0.30 µg/kg. The contribution of pork products to OTA intake in Italy appears to be negligible.3. Piva G., Prandini A., Morlacchini M., Bertuzzi T., Gualla A, Fortunati P. and Pietri A. 2006.Ochratoxin A in tissues of heavy pigs fed naturally contaminated diets. 10 th InternationalSymposium on Digestive Physiology in Pigs, 25/05-27/05/06, Vejle, Denmark.Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin produced by various Aspergillus and Penicillium species. Several studieshave shown that the toxinhas carcinogenic, nephrotoxic, immunotoxic, teratogenic properties. OTA can contaminatecereals and can occur in pig meat as a result of transmission from animals exposed to contaminated feed.In Italy, an action level of 1 ppb in meat products has been fixed. Twenty four heavy pigs (140 + 3 kg initiall.w.) were divided into 4 dietary treatments and fed for 14 d with diets containing OTA at 0.4 (CTR): 38(OTA38); 79 (OTA79) and 147 (OTA147) ppb. At the end of the study the animals were slaughtered and samplesof muscle, fat, liver and kidney were analyzed for OTA determination.SISTAL - SOCIETA’ ITALIANA DI SCIENZE E TECNOLOGIE ALIMENTARIDipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Agroalimentari, Università degli Studi della TusciaVia San Camillo de Lellis, 01100 ViterboTel.: 0761- 35 74 94/7 , Fax: 0761- 35 74 98, e-mail: mmoresi@unitus.it105