Ozone Gas Antifungal Effect on Extruded Dog Food Contaminated with Aspergillus flavus

ABSTRACT

Decontamination of Aspergillus flavus spores in inoculated extruded food (Standard and Super-Premium types), through ozone (O₃) gas, was investigated at different concentrations (40 and 60 µmol/mol) and times (30, 60, and 120 min) of exposure. The gas antifungal efficiency, humidity, and lipid stability were evaluated before and after treatments. O₃ reduced A. flavus spores of the extruded food, on both types (p < 0.05). The highest reduction (98.3%) was observed for both food types, when gas was applied for 120 min, regardless of the O₃ concentration. Regarding humidity and peroxide index, there was no difference, either prior to or after the gas application for all treatments conditions. O₃ gas can be an efficient method for fungi spores’ contamination control during commercialization of extruded food in open bags exposed to the environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Antifungal
• Aspergillus flavus
• Extruded Food
• Fungi
• Lipid Stability
• Ozone Gas
• Pet Food

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico.