Abstract: Meat products especially beef; luncheon and burgers are some of the most popular meals in many
countries in the world including Egypt, which were found to be highly contaminated with fungi, especially
Aspergillus and Penicillium spp. during the manufacturing process leading to public health hazards due to their
mycotoxins production. Therefore, the current study focused on the isolation and identification of mycotoxigenic
fungi that were associated with the processed food samples. A total of 54 food samples, including luncheon, burgers,
sausage, meat spices, basterma, indomie corn flex, spices, crisps, karate (snacks), biscuits, maize, and soybean, were
gathered from various locations in the Qalubyia Governorate in Egypt. The collected samples were examined
mycologically to evaluate their quality and safety. According to the findings of this study, the luncheon samples
under examination had the highest total fungal count of 313 fungal colonies/10g of the tested samples, followed by
meat spices (153) and crisps (152) fungal colonies/10g. While, indomie, sausage and soybean samples showed the
lowest number of fungal colonies (14, 25, and 25 colonies/10 g, respectively). The recovered fungi were identified
morphologically based on macro and microscopic traits and belonged to seven genera. Interestingly, results showed
that the genus Aspergillus was the most frequently (A. niger (87.044 %) and A. flavus (59.26 %) followed by
Penicillium genus which represented (59.26 %). Moreover, the most predominant fungal species were screened for
their toxin production. Data cleared that the highest concentrations of aflatoxins and ochratoxin A being (200.03 and
17.26 ng/ mL) were obtained from A. flavus and A. niger, respectively isolated from basterma. These findings
emphasize the risk of fungal contamination exposure to consumers due to the high consumption of fast foods and
spices which may be susceptible to fungal infection, leading to mycotoxins contamination if the storage conditions
are favorable for the fungal growth.
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