| Congresso Brasileiro de Microbiologia 2023 | Resumo: 980-1 | ||||
Resumo:It is known that food safety is related to a set of measures aimed at ensuring quality and, consequently, the health of consumers. In this context, the concern with contamination, especially microbiological contamination, is of fundamental importance throughout the food chain. By characterizing possible contaminants and assessing which steps present potential dangers that can influence quality control, monitoring of the production chain and clarity in decision-making becomes possible. This scenario prevents deterioration and, consequently, economic losses, as well as damage to public health. The objective of this work was to investigate a case of microbiological contamination of peach nectar, produced in an fruit juice industry, located in the Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Samples of products that presented blown up were evaluated. Elongated filaments were found inside the package were investigated considering phenotypic and genotypic analyses. Initially, part of the elongated filament found in the product was observed and documented through optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). In addition, a portion of the foreign material was inoculated into Dicloran Rose Bengal agar with Chloramphenicol (DRBC) and incubated at 25°C for 168 hours. The microorganism was isolated, and the genomic DNA was extracted and purified. Then, the amplification step of the D1/D2 region of the 26S rDNA was conducted by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using primers NL1 (5'-GCATATCAATAAGCGGAGGAAAG-3') and NL4 (5'-GCTCCGTGTTTCAAGACGG-3'). The PCR products were evaluated by electrophoresis in agarose gel and, finally, the sequencing of the amplicons was performed. The sequences obtained were aligned using the MEGA11 software and compared with the Genbank database (NCBI), using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST). The micrographs obtained from the microscopic evaluation of a portion of the filament found in the spoiled nectar allowed the visualization of morphologically different and clustered yeast cells. This morphological alteration that was found corroborates the findings in the literature, since it is a characteristic present in the Candida spp. and recognized as a “switching mechanism”. It is a phenomenon of high frequency and reversibility that is present in a situation of stress, in which there are changes in the surface of cells, appearance of colonies and metabolism, making them more virulent. Confirmation of the taxonomic identity of the spoilage microorganism was obtained by sequencing its D1/D2 region of the 26S rDNA, which showed similarity with the species Candida tropicalis (99.64% identity). The phenotypic and genotypic approaches used in this work proved to be efficient and convergent, as the limitations of one method could be complemented by another, enabling the characterization of the evaluated microorganism. The results of this work aroused concern regarding public health, since the microorganism in question is considered an emerging pathogen and a danger that directly influences the innocuity and, therefore, the food safety. Therefore, this study revealed interesting information about the spoilage target microorganism and confirmed the importance of quality control throughout the food chain. In addition, it reinforced the attention that should be given by the food industries to a preventive approach as a strategy to control microbiological contamination. Palavras-chave: Safety of food, Microbiological contamination, Candida tropicalis, Quality control, Innocuous Agência de fomento:CNPq | |||||