“Innovation and Enhancement of Almond Processing Chain”, a Project to Highlight the Almond Dried Fruit Quality in Sicily (South Italy)

Almond dried-fruit consumption is a characteristic of the mediterranean diet and the related transformation industry could represent a great economic chance for Sicily, the main producing italian region. Nevertheless, the italian almond market is suffering a long crisis caused by the international competition with low-cost producing Countries. The Sicilian Region for the purpose funded a multidisciplinary project. A microbiological monitoring of indoor air and surface matrices has been carried out in two sicilian packaging companies showing good environmental microbiological profiles and absence of possible Aflatoxin-producers fungi. Five in Sicily grown almond cultivars (cvs), of which three of italian and two of allochthonous origin, were mycologically analyzed: among the different isolated fungi, Penicillium and Aspergillus spp. proved to be, by morphological and molecular identification, the predominant in all the analyzed cvs; in the allochthonous almond cvs Aspergillia sect. Nigri and few strains, belonging to A. flavus and A. parasiticus spp., were detected. In experimental conditions, just one A. parasiticus and one A. flavus strains showed to be total aflatoxins- or AFG1-producers respectively. Regarding to the nutritional profile, chemical researches demonstrated that Pizzuta and Fascionello sicilian autochthonous cvs contain the highest total polyphenols level; same highest content has been in them detected by analyzing fats. The content of other minerals, as K and Zn, has been measured out more or less at same level in all the studied cvs, whereas the Cu and Fe or the Mg contents were higher, respect to the others, in the Fascionello and in the californian Carmel cvs respectively