Occurrence of Mould Counts and Aspergillus Species in Iranian Dried Figs at Different Stages of Production and Processing

The present study was carried out to investigate the occurrence of total mycobiota and Aspergillus species at different stages of fig production and processing in Iran. In the meantime, the potential of different culture media for isolation of fungal species from figs was also investigated. The mycobiota of 389 samples of dried fig were studied. Total fungal counts ranged from <2 to 6.74 log10 CFU g-1. In general, the predominant species were Aspergillus niger aggregate, Aspergillus flavus, Acremonium spp. and Mucor spp. in percentages of 90.9%, 63.7%, 54.6% and 36.4% infection, respectively. Other Aspergillus spp. and Mucor spp. Corresponded to 36.7% and 28.3% infection, respectively. The lowest contamination was observed in dried figs. The predominant fungi were Alternaria spp. and Penicillium spp. (9.1% infection). On average, Aspergillus spp. comprised 34.4% of the total fungal population. Aspergillus niger aggregate was detected in 99%, and A. terreus was present in 11.3% of total samples. The results revealed that poor hygienic conditions in fig harvesting, drying procedures, collecting sites, sorting and packaging plants caused higher mould contamination and risk of the A. flavus growth in dried fig production in Iran. As the result obtained from this study, using more than one culture media for isolation of A. flavus is recommended.