Fungos associados a grãos de café (Coffea arabica L.) beneficiados no sudoeste da Bahia

Abstract

Several factors can affect the quality of coffee, especia lly those rela ted to the post-ha rvest sta ges of processing a nd drying. Some fu ngal species can a ssociate with coffee bea ns during post-ha rvest, leading to undesirable alterations. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of dry (natural) processing, on-land drying, and humid (pulped) drying on cement floors, which are methods tra ditionally used in the southwestern region of Bahia State, Brazil, on the incidence of fungi on benefited coffee beans produced in the 2007/2008 harvest. The experiment consisted of 4 treatments: a) natural coffee of Barra do Choça ; b) natu ral coffee of Encruzilha da ; c) pu lped coffee of Barra do Choça and d) pulped coffee of Encruzilhada; and 5 replicates. Twenty samples of coffee beans were collected from different coffee growers in the above-mentioned cities. Results were evaluated using Bonferroni ́s T test a t 5 % proba bility. Significa nt differences were found between the analyzed treatments for fu ngal infesta tion. The genera of detected fungi were: Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium, and Aspergillus had the highest incidence, with eight species identified: Aspergillus ochraceus, A. niger, A. flavus, A. foetidus, A. tubingensis, A. a uricomus, A. soja e and A. oryzae. The incidence of fungi was higher in naturally processed than in pulped coffee beans.