CANCHADA YERBA MATÉ: MICROBIOLOGICAL PROFILE

MARÍA L. CASTRILLO1, AYELEN TAYAGÜI1 , MARTA A. HORIANSKI1 , GLADIS JERKE1 , Y MIRIAM MARTINEZ1

Villa Carlos PAz, Cordoba, Argentina.

Congreso; VI CONGRESO ARGENTINO DE MICROBIOLOGÍA GENERAL; 2009

Argentina produces more than 60% of the worldwide total of canchada yerba maté followed by Brazil and Paraguay. It constitutes the raw material for the mills and it is one of the degrees of transformation in which yerba maté is comercialized. The process of elaboration of yerba maté comprises the harvest, held once a year usually between May and September, the sapecado, where the crop is subjected to direct action of the flame for a short time, causing the stoppage of the enzymatic activity of the biological processes responsible for degradation of plant tissue, the drying through a system of tapes submitted to moderate temperatures, 80 - 100 º C to remove residual moisture to ensure the obtaining of a good product: canchado and zaranda, consisting of coarse grinding and sieving of the dried leaves of yerba maté, which are then stationed and afterwards crushed to obtain the traditional yerba maté. The canchada yerba maté is obtained from the stage of canchado and zaranda. The aim of this study was to perform the microbiological profile of canchada yerba maté which came from various establishments in the province of Misiones. We analyzed a total of 20 samples of canchada yerba maté, taken from different shops and markets in the center and the suburbs of the city of Posadas,Misiones.The microbiological profile was performed using the IRAM rule 20517:2004 which includes: counting of total mesophilic aerobic bacteria (BAMT) ,counting of fungi and yeasts (RHL), counting of total coliform (RCT), counting of fecal coliforms (RCF) and detection of Escherichia coli. The results of the countings were subjected to statistical analysis, finding for BAMT an average of 1.19 x102 CFU / g, a minimum of 7 CFU / g and a maximum of 4.13 x102 CFU / g; for RHL an average of 1, 25 x102 CFU / g, a minimum value of 1 CFU / g and a maximum of 4.6 x102 CFU / g; for RCT an average of 5.5 x101 CFU / g, a minimum value less than 10 CFU / g and a maximum of 1.1 x102 CFU / g. Neither the presence of fecal coliform nor Escherichia coli was detected in any of the samples. Comparing these results to those obtained in traditional yerba maté in previous studies, a minor microbiological contamination of two orders of magnitude was observed.