Indoor air quality in mass catering plants: Occurrence of airborne eumycetes in a university canteen

The present study aimed to investigate the viable eumycetes population of indoor air sampled in amass catering plant that produces up to 1200 meals per day. The combination of a culture-dependentand -independent approach applied in the food-processing environment was efficient for the iden-tification of airborne eumycetes. Penicillum, Cladosporium and Alternaria were the dominant genera,while Thysanophora, Aspergillus, Rhizopus, Annulohypoxylon, Arthrinium, Aureobasidium and Trametes werefound to be in minority. The size and composition of the eumycetes population found in this study donot raise specific concerns. Nevertheless, a quantitative and qualitative monitoring of these bioaerosolshould be included in the progress and criticality reports of the HACCP system in the catering serviceswhere eumycetes can pose different risks, such as worsening of the overall quality of meals and/or of thework environment. Indeed, these reports are a useful tool in the preventive HACCP approach, providedthat an adequate frequency of sampling is planned in order to quicken the pre-warning process.