Abstract
Reducing the development of mould and mycotoxin production in food is considered the most difficult task of food processing and technology. Consequently, the use of biological control strategy has been developed to mitigate AFs. The current study was designed to investigate the role of Saccharomyces cerevisiae against Aspergillus flavus growth and its aflatoxigenic ability in fungal media and in a meat matrix. Twenty A. flavus isolates were screened qualitatively for aflatoxin-producing ability with coconut agar media and thin-layer chromatography. Strong producer isolates were used for studying the efficiency of S. cerevisiae (strain No. AUMC13706, GenBank Accession No. MZ889111) against their growth on yeast extract malt extract agar (YMA) media and yeast extract sucrose (YES) broth. The S. cerevisiae role against A. flavus aflatoxigenic ability was studied on YES broth. The efficiency of S. cerevisiae against A. flavus isolates' growth and their aflatoxigenic ability in minced meat as a food model was investigated. Furthermore, the detoxification ability of S. cerevisiae was studied in minced meat inoculated with aflatoxins. Sensory properties of the meat and pH values were evaluated along the experiment. S. cerevisiae has the ability to mitigate A. flavus growth up to 22% on YMA and its total AFs level up to 90.41% on YES. The interaction between S. cerevisiae and A. flavus in minced meat showed that it had a non-significant effect on A. flavus growth in chilling temperature; however, it had a significant effect on the detoxification of minced meat inoculated with aflatoxins, with a reduction percentage up to 83.50% on the last day of the experiment with negligible changes in pH and sensory properties.

Key words: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, biocontrol, Aspergillus flavus, aflatoxins, minced meat