| Grant number: | 24/00896-9 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate |
| Start date: | September 01, 2024 |
| End date: | February 29, 2028 |
| Field of knowledge: | Agronomical Sciences - Food Science and Technology - Food Technology |
| Principal Investigator: | Carlos Augusto Fernandes de Oliveira |
| Grantee: | Amanda Cristina Dias de Oliveira |
| Host Institution: | Faculdade de Zootecnia e Engenharia de Alimentos (FZEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Pirassununga , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 19/21603-1 - Biomarker approaches for assessing the early life exposure to multiple mycotoxins in the diet, AP.TEM |
Abstract Cereal-based foods are included in children's diets before the first year of life, starting the transition to solid foods with high acceptance. Their composition may vary, including wheat, corn, barley, rice and oats, and despite meticulous quality control processes, infant cereals can be contaminated with potentially toxic compounds such as aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and deoxynivalenol (DON). These toxins are secondary metabolites produced by certain types of fungi that grow naturally on various foods, especially cereals, which highlights the need for studies to find efficient technologies to control and reduce these contaminants. Among the emerging methods proposed for mycotoxin degradation, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) stands out, although there is little data on its application for decontamination of mycotoxins directly on food matrices. In this context, the aims of this project are: to evaluate the efficiency of CAP to degrade AFB1 (~20 ng/g) and DON (~600 ng/g) in infant cereals naturally contaminated with these mycotoxins (samples available from an ongoing Thematic Project experiment, process FAPESP 2019/21603-1), verify the toxicity of the degradation products of these mycotoxins, and investigate the possible effects of this technology on the quality of the cereal foods studied. To this end, 24 treatments will be accomplished in triplicate, plus positive and negative controls, in a 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 factorial scheme, with 2 amplitude values (10 and 15 kV), 2 frequencies (20 and 40 kHz), 2 power values (100 and 150 W) and 3 exposure times to CAP (5, 10 and 20 min). The toxicity of the mycotoxin degradation products will be assessed in vitro through cytotoxic, mutagenic and genotoxic potential in cell culture. The data obtained in the experiments will be subjected to ANOVA, and Tukey test will be applied to compare means considering ±=0.05. | |
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