Banca de DEFESA: GUSTAVO RODRIGUES MORGADO

Characterization and quality evaluation of baru nuts and almonds in natura and roasted using different types of packaging.

Baru. Packaging. Fungi. Storage

The Brazilian cerrado presents a very diverse flora, with highly nutritious fruits such as the Baru. The baru kernel has stood out in the market, for being a source of nutrients .And it has been widely consumed by the general population, both in natura and roasted. There is little research regarding post-harvest conservation, such as roasting and storage temperatures, as well as the type of appropriate packaging to be used. Thus, the objective of this work was to evaluate the presence of mycotoxins in baru nuts and the physical and chemical characteristics of baru nuts in natura collected in the municipalities of Northwest Minas Gerais. And also how roasted nuts are compared with three types of packaging used by farmers and the packaging used by the Cooperative of Sustainable Family Agriculture based on Solidarity Economy – COPABASE. The aim is to verify their conservation for a storage period of 0, 45, 90 and 135. In the first stage of the study, the presence of mycotoxins in the baru nuts stored by the farmers was evaluated. In the second stage of the study the physicochemical characteristics were evaluated as: width, length, mass, pH and titratable acidity, moisture content, protein, lipids and ash of the in natura almonds for their characterization. Then, in the third stage, after roasting the almonds, for their physicalchemical characterization and packed in plastic packaging of different farmers (low density polyethylene, poly (ethylene terephthalate) PET bottle and pot and the COPABASE packaging (PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) plus LDPE (Polyethylene of low density) lamination. In this case, to verify if there were alterations during storage for the determined period of time, besides the standard bacterial count in plates, enumeration of total coliforms and thermotolerant coliforms through the multiple tubes technique, for all treatments, during storage. Regarding the presence of fungus in the baru nuts, the microflora found were Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus ocraceus, Penicillium sp., Cladosporium sp, Rhizopus spp, with the nuts from Arinos, Buritis, Igrejinha and Riachinho presenting the highest incidence of Aspergillus and Penicillium and Fusarium spp. The descriptive statistical analysis applied to the physical and chemical data of the baru nuts varied in the regions studied, where Arinos presented the best characteristics and Riachinho presented the lowest averages, which may be associated with the region and the climate; the form of storage; the composition; environmental and genetic variations; among others. According to the descriptive statistical analyses applied to the quality attributes of roasted baru kernels in function of the packaging and storage periods, the COPABASE and PETGAR packaging were the best, ensuring better conditions of conservation in their evaluated quality attributes, maintaining their physical, physicochemical and microbiological characteristics.