Abstract
The search for a more nutritious and beneficial diet has led to an increase in the consumption of organic foods, which are labeled as healthier. However, there is the possibly greater susceptibility to contamination by mycotoxigenic mold whereas agricultural defensives are prohibited. The objective of this work was to evaluate the mycobiota to determine the occurrence of aflatoxins and fumonisins by ultra-performance liquid chromatography of corn in its conventional and organic derivatives. 200 samples were collected, 140 conventional and 60 organics. The most frequent genera were Aspergillus spp., Penicillium spp. and Fusarium spp, and fungal growth in the organic sampling was more prevalent (70%). In conventional samples, AFB1 were detected at levels of up to 32.4 μg/kg. In the organics, AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, FB1 were detected at maximum levels of 118.1, 52.2, 25.7, 28.8, and 3,462.5 μg/kg; however, there were higher frequencies of AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and FB1 and co-exposure among mycotoxins in organic sampling that demonstrated significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) among samples. These indicate a potential risk to the public health, especially for consumers of corn and organic by-products; therefore, there is a demonstrable need to prevention and monitoring, in addition to these data contributing to the traceability of contamination and co-occurrence of mycotoxins.
Published Version
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