Interação entre aflatoxinas, selênio e radioatividade em Castanha-do-Brasil (bertholletia excelsa)

Abstract

Food safety is an important aspect to be achieved by the food industry and the contamination of some products, such as the Brazil-nut (Bertholletia excelsa HBK), caused by aflatoxin and radioactivity has been shown in several studies. Natural compound of Brazil-nut, selenium is an element considered by the antioxidant present in large amounts in some foods, for example, in tree nuts. However, it is an element widely studied because of the ambiguity of his actions, beneficial or toxic effects on organisms. Considering these aspects, samples of nuts from Brazil classified in different sizes, shelled, export were evaluated with the aim of studying the interaction of levels of radioactivity, selenium and aflatoxin contamination. The analysis of selenium was performed by optical emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma (ICP / OES), using the method of atomic emission. The limit of detection (LOD) was 1.50 g/g, and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was 3.00 g/g. The analysis of aflatoxins were performed by mass spectrometry / mass (MS / MS) coupled to a liquid chromatograph (LC) with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI). The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LQ) for ΣAFLs were 0.3 and 0.85 mg/kg, respectively. Traces of radioactive radionuclide 228Ra, 226Ra and 224Ra were measured by gamma spectrometry, using a HPGe detector GEM-M 7080-PS, ORTEC, 66% relative efficiency. If levels ranged between 9.4 and 39.0 mg/g ± 7.36, mean of 22.71 mg/g. The average activity for the radionuclides studied were 15.77 Bq/kg for 224Ra, 104.81 Bq/kg for 226Ra and 99.48 Bq/kg for 228Ra. If the levels did not differ significantly between the different sizes, as well as 226Ra. Already the 224Ra and 228Ra showed differences between the sizes. There was no statistically significant association between the level of selenium and the activity of radionuclides, however, correlated with each other radionuclides. No sample was contaminated by aflatoxin. All committed effective doses calculated for the radionuclides are below the ceiling.