Modelling of Aspergillus parasitucus growth under non optimal environmental conditions

DAIANA GARCIA; ANTONIO J. RAMOS; VICENTE SANCHIS; SONIA MARÍN

Congreso; International Symposium on fungal and algal toxins in industry; 2010

Mycotoxins are chemical risks of biological origin which are of increasing concern in food products due to the wide range of food types where they can be found. They are associated to the presence of fungal inoculum on predisposed substrates. Despite the absence of direct correlation between mould growth and mycotoxins production, prevention of fungal growth effectively conduces to prevention of mycotoxin accumulation. In general, water activity (aw) and temperature are regarded as the main controlling factors determining the potential for mould growth. Predictive models can be a tool to prevent mould development. Secondary kinetic models describe microbial responses in relation to environmental factors, providing estimates for parameters of growth: lag phase (λ) and growth rate (μ). These researches are generally built on synthetic media and they should be validated in food systems, where there are other factors that influence on the mould growth.