Effectiveness of CAP on Mycotoxins in Naturally Contaminated Cocoa Beans

Cocoa is the world’s third most popular raw resource, behind sugar and coffee. Mycotoxins in cocoa beans and chocolate products are a significant public health problem, as well as the adoption of non-thermal treatments to reduce their presence. This study investigated the occurrence of mycotoxins in cocoa beans and the efficacy of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) treatment in degrading mycotoxins in cocoa beans naturally contaminated. Two different CAP conditions were compared: ozone (O3) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) regimes. HPLC-MS/MS analyses revealed that out of twenty cocoa samples from Colombia, 40% were contaminated by beauvericin (BEA) and 25% by ochratoxin A (OTA). Only one sample was contaminated with more than two mycotoxins: BEA, OTA, ochratoxin B (OTB), aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), and aflatoxin B2 (AFB2); instead, aflatoxins G1 and G2 (AFG1 and AFG2) in none of the samples were detected. Our results suggested that the efficacy of CAP on mycotoxin degradation was regime, time exposure, distance from the source and molecule structure dependent. The reduction of the mycotoxins was OTB>AFB2>AFB1>OTA>BEA. For the first time we reported the efficacy of CAP-O3 in reduce mycotoxins in cocoa beans.