Decontamination of mycotoxigenic fungi on shelled corn using selective infrared heating technique

Background and objectives Mycotoxigenic fungi pose a severe threat to humans’ health and cause economic losses to crop growers. This study investigated the impact of selected wavelengths of infrared (IR), as a novel technique, followed by a tempering step to inactivate the fungi on shelled corn. Findings Ascomycota was found to be the most dominant phylum (95.6 and 93.2%, respectively) on corn treated with only IR and IR followed by a tempering. Among fungal genera, Aspergillus was the primary genus found on corn treated with only IR heat. However, a significant reduction in relative abundance of Aspergillus (22%) was obtained when corn with 16% moisture content (wet basis) was treated with the following set up: IR wavelength of 3.2 µm at product‐to‐emitter gap of 110 mm, and 60 s duration. Conclusion The use of selected IR wavelengths is effective in inactivating mycotoxigenic fungi such as Aspergillus flavus. The further significant suppression of the mycotoxigenic fungi is feasible with incorporating a tempering step into the IR heat treatment. Significance and novelty The selected IR system is scalable for large scale industrial application, offering promises of reliable and rapid mycotoxigenic fungal inactivation on corn and other cereals.