A Survey on Fungal Contamination Incurrent Consumed Spices in Hamedan in 2019

Spices are a rich source of powerful antioxidants and food flavors in the production and maintenance process that may be exposed to fungal contamination. The purpose of this study was to investigate the fungal contamination of various spices including curry, red pepper, black pepper, turmeric and cinnamon from some supermarkets in Hamedan.

In this cross-sectional study that was performed in the laboratory of Mycology, Veterinary Science Faculty in Bu Ali Sina University of Hamedan from March to July 2019, 100 samples of five types of spices including curry, black pepper, red pepper, turmeric and cinnamon, belonging to four brands,were selected from different regions of Hamedan. Serial dilutions 10-1 to 10-5were used to culture the prepared samples on mycological media. In the end, colonies were counted and examined.

A total of 2167 colonies were isolated and identified from 6 fungal species of spices (642), cinnamon (973), turmeric (131),  and red pepper (421). Black pepper did not have fungal infections. Detected fungi mainly included Aspergillus niger (31%), Rhizopus spp (28%), Aspergillus flavus (22%), Penicillium spp (8%) respectively.

The results of this cross-sectional study indicate that there are high levels of fungal contaminations in current used spices, so that the highest fungal contamination was related to Aspergillus niger and the highest contamination was related to cinnamon and curry spices.