Residues of food grade antioxidants applied on stored peanuts to preserve its mycological quality

PASSONE, M.A.; FUNES, G.J.; RESNIK, S.; ETCHEVERRY, M.

Villa Carlos Paz, Córdoba, Argentina

Congreso; MYCO-GLOBE Advances in research on toxigenic fungi and mycotoxins in South America ensuring food and feed safety in a myco-globe context; 2006

Chulze, S.N., Dalcero, A.M., Resnik, S. y Pacin, A.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the residua levels of food grade antioxidants; butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), propyl paraben (PP) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), applied in grains and pods of stored peanut during a five months period. To carry out the experience four big bags, each one with 200 kg of peanut, were put up. The following treatments: BHA (1802 ppm), BHA-PP (1802:1802 ppm), BHA-PP-BHT (1802:901:2204 ppm) and BHA-PP-BHT (1802:1802:2204 ppm), were added to each big bag. The first samples were taken at the start of the experience and the following of samples were taken by five replicates at 30 days intervals. The grains were separated from the pods and both milled for subsequent analyses. The antioxidants residua of 5 and 1 g of peanut grains and pods respectively were extracted with acetonitrile by magnetically shaking. Antioxidant content was evaluated using a reversed-phase HPLC / absorbance detection system. The highest residua levels were obtained from the pods at first sampling. They ranged between 1702.6 to 1575.9 ppm; 1433.8 to 971.6 ppm and 1488.1 to 991.2 ppm for BHA, PP and BHT respectively. The means of recovery percentages of the peanut pods for BHA, PP and BHT were 92 + 2.2%; 84 + 1.7% and 92 + 3.5%, respectively. Significantly reductions (P=0.05) of the chemical concentrations in four peanut storage containers were observed, according the storage time increased. The means of reduction percentages, at the end of the experiment, were 37%; 67%; 76%; and 75% to 1, 2, 3 and 4 peanut containers, respectively. Considering antioxidant concentrations applied, only about of 0.14 and 0.05%; 0.5 and 0.14% and 0.2 and 0.07% were recovered from the grains with means covery percentages of 96 + 6.8%, 82 + 5.3% and 71 + 5.6% for BHA, PP and BHT, respectively. Antioxidant levels in grains were relatively constant throughout the storage and statistically differences were not found (P=0.05). This study showed that chemical residua of the grains (5.8 to 0.3 ppm) were within the levels allowed by FDA (200 mg per gram of fat or oil content of the food product) (JECA, 1196), while, values of antioxidant residua of the pods were higher than acceptable level (842.6 to 109.3 ppm) at all sampling periods. These results suggest that the range of food grade preservatives analyzed in this assay could be applied on storage peanut pods for control of spoilage and toxins in the peanut production chain.   References Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) (1996) Toxicological evalutation of certain food additives and contaminants in food. Who Food Additives Series, N° 35. pp. 3-86. Geneva.