Aspectos microbiológicos de marcas comerciais de arroz

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the second most cultivated cereal in the world. Brazil is the ninth largest producer, mainly in irrigated rice cultivation. This cultivation process provides moisture required for microbial growth, demanding a monitoring to ensure grain quality and consumers protection. Were evaluated every two months, for six months, health concern microbiological parameters established by Brazilian legislation and sanitary interest in ten polished rice trademarks. All samples showed no Salmonella sp., however the samples 6 and 7 showed coliform count 45 °C above the limit (5.10¹ 43 NMP.g-¹) recommended by law in all evaluations. Relative to total mesophilic aerobic count, all samples were within internationally acceptable standards, highlighting sample 8 which showed lower counts, while sample 9 showed higher counts throughout the three evaluations. No growth was observed in colonies with yeast morphological characteristics, but some samples (January 9 and March/May 3) had higher mold counts. Sample 2 was the unique that no showed fungi growth in three valuations. All samples were within the risk limit to Bacillus cereus intoxication. These results showed the 15 importance to improve the rice microbiological monitoring since some samples showed a microorganism incidence above the acceptable legislation limits, providing risk to consumer health.