Resumo

In Brazil, the maize grain is the second most produced and consumed both as food and animal. Several toxigenic fungi can contaminate these cereals, especially Fusarium sp., Aspergillus sp. and Penicillium sp., all known producers of mycotoxins, such as fumonisins, aflatoxins and patulin, respectively. Therefore, the study aimed to analyze the mycoflora of 11 brands and types of corn, three of which are designed to feed, four to munguza and four brands of popcorn. All brands and types of corn are marketed in Recife - PE, Brazil. The samples were acquired, processed and packaged as follows: 50 grains of each sample were disinfected with a solution of NaClO to 0.4% for 2 minutes. And then, the grains were plated directly in the media DRBC and AFPA and the plates were incubated at 25 ° C for 5 days. Positive samples in the AFPA medium were transplanted to the MCA medium and the plates were incubated for 3 days at 25°C. In samples for an animal feed, 1, 2 and 3 was 100% (50 grains) of fungal growth in DRBC medium, but no positive sample in the medium AFPA. These samples were the predominant genera: Fusarium sp. and Penicillium sp. Because corn for animal feed and sold in bulk, this result is of concern for the risk of fumonisin contamination of animal. The sample 11 (popcorn) despite being the second most contaminated (70% among DRBC), showed no fungal growth on AFPA medium, followed by the sample 10 (34%) and 4 (32%). However, samples 5, 6 and 8 showed low rate of fungal contamination in DRBC medium, being respectively 26%, 18% and 6%, but were contaminated with aflatoxigenic Aspergillus and MCA through all showed yellow to green fluorescence 365nm, possibly indicating aflatoxin production of the group G. Among the genera of fungi isolated from 11 samples analyzed, stood out in order of occurrence: Fusarium sp., Penicillium sp., Aspergillus sp., Rhizopus sp. and Colletotrichum sp., everyone already in literature as contaminants of maize and derivatives. Sample 7 was the only one that showed no contamination in the media DRBC and AFPA, representing a brand of high quality control with the grain. Therefore, the 11 samples studied, only one them was suitable for human or animal consumption, the rest were contaminated to a greater or lesser extent by fungi.