Fungi in bottled water: A case study of a production plant

Abstract

A one-year fungal survey of a water bottling plant was conducted in order to evaluate the incidence and fluctuations of the mycobiota. The dominant fungal genera in order of highest numbers isolated were Penicillium, Cladosporium and Trichoderma followed by Aspergillus, Paecilomyces, and others. As expected, the highest number of isolates were collected during the warmer months, particularly May and June. Indeed during these two months there were more fungi present in the water, indicating that during those times of the year when fungal contamination is high, 0.4 mm filters should be changed on a more regular basis. In order to assess whether contamination was single or multi-loci, molecular methods based on the PCR were used for Penicillium brevicompactum. Overall, fungal contamination arose from multiple sources. Some P. brevicompactum strains were very "alike" and were detected during different sampling times, indicating that they were endemic to the plant. There was no evidence to suggest that fungi detected in the source water passed through to other parts of the plant. However, there was evidence that fungal strains isolated from the water filter were detected elsewhere in the factory, confirming the need to change filters more regularly during periods of high fungal contamination. In order to improve quality control a HACCP programme was implemented and Best Practice Guidelines introduced.

Factors of Influence in the Distribution of Mold in the Air in a Wine Cellar

“…The air as a source of microorganisms that cause possible contamination, and the medium for dissemination thereof has been studied in a range of food processing plants, including those producing poultry (Lutgring and others 1997, White and others 2001), pork (Pearce and others 2006) beef products (Prendergast and others 2004, Burfoot and others 2006), in dairy plants (Kang and Frank 1989, Ren and Frank 1992), and in bottling plants (Henriksson and Haikara 1991, Ribeiro and others 2006) among others. In the aforementioned studies, the importance of ventilation systems and the design of the processing plant facilities for food products has been emphasized in terms of the dissemination and distribution of contamination present in the air.…”

Microbiological monitoring mf mineral water commercialized in Brazil

“…However, immunodeficient patients are widely susceptive to fungal infections and some previous works have reported the isolation of fungi in bottled water (7,19,26,30).…”

Biomass, abundance and sensitivity to antibiotics and antimycotics of the fungi in the Vistula River with its main tributaries

“…Saprotrophic fungi are present in drinking water and their standard number is 100 CFU/mL. The presence of fungi has been ascertained not only in bottled water but also in distilled and in ultraclean water (Cabral, Fernandez 2002;Hageskal et al 2006;Ribeiro et al 2006;Hageskal et al 2009). The fungi present in drinking water can transfer drug-resistance to pathogenic microorganisms, and that has significant meaning when it comes to the health of humans.…”