Individual and combined decontamination effect of fermentation and ultrasound on aflatoxin B1 in wheat-based doughs

In this work, a preliminary investigation was conducted to examine the effect of ultrasound (US), alone or in combination with fermentation, on the reduction of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) at 50 ng/g in wheat flour-based doughs. The US treatment was performed by soaking flasks containing triplicate samples of non-fermented and fermented (18 h at 28°C; 85% relative humidity) doughs in US bath (40 kHz; 100 W/cm2) at 35°C for 10, 30 and 60 min. Percentage reduction of AFB1 levels as determined by high-performance liquid chromatography varied between 3.6% and 46.0% in non-fermented doughs, and from 6.7% to 61.7% in fermented doughs. The US treatments used in the experiment did not interfere with the titratable acidity of fermented doughs, hence confirming US as a promising technique to reduce aflatoxin levels in fermented wheat-based products. The future studies are required to determine other parameters, such as temperature and pH of the product, to optimize the decontamination process of AFB1 as well as to evaluate possible effects of US on the sensory attributes of wheat-based products.