Ozonation of agri-food products for reducing mycotoxin contamination: challenges in grains and particulates processing

Abstract

This study evaluated differences in the efficiency of ozonation process to reduce the natural contamination of two mycotoxins, deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN), in wheat grains and particulate products. Three different products were used, each one representing a different structure and mycotoxin distribution: (1) wheat grains, with natural mycotoxin distribution inside and among the grains; (2) homemade pellets, with homogenous mycotoxin distribution; (3) ground homemade pellets, with homogeneous mycotoxin distribution, and smaller particles. The ozonation of naturally contaminated wheat grains did not reduce the concentrations of DON and ZEN. When the variability of contamination among replicates was reduced by the production of homemade pellets showed, the ozonation provides a reduction of 14% of ZEN concentration. Reducing the size of particles by grinding the homemade pellets, a reduction of DON (11%) and ZEN (31%) was observed, which was evidenced by the higher ozone consumption during the process. Therefore, some limitations of ozonation of grains and particulate products, such as particle dimensions and distribution of natural contamination of mycotoxins affect the degradation of DON and ZEN under real conditions. Because of this, further studies to evaluate the effectiveness of ozonation should also be performed in samples naturally contaminated to produce robustness results.

Keywords:

• Variability
• natural contamination
• thricothecenes
• wheat
• distribution

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Mrs. Amanda Silva Santos and Naiara Silva Costa, for their assistance in carrying out mycotoxin analyses on wheat grains.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Brazil) for funding the projects n∘ 2016/10732-7 and 2019/05043-6, to the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) for funding the productivity grant of P.E.D. Augusto (306557/2017-7 and 310839/2020-3); and to Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel – Brazil (CAPES) for funding the postdoctoral fellowship of A.C. Romero (88887.356778/2019-00).