Hassan Nakhchian - Department of Food Science Industry, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad, Iran
Farideh Tabatabaei yazdi - Department of Food Science Industry, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad, Iran
Seyed Ali Mortazavi - Department of Food Science Industry, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad, Iran
Mohebbat Mohebbi - Department of Food Science Industry, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University Of Mashhad, Iran

Objective: Mold contamination of cakes and the possibility of mold growth can pose a serious health problem. Bakery products include various ingredients, which regularly contain molds. These microorganisms on cakes can come from the air, contaminated packaging materials and other sources. Methods: In this study, a total of 500 fungal isolates representing 36 species, were identified from cake samples and ambient environment air on four different media. For each cake sample, four culture and two culturing methods, spread plating and pour plating, were applied. For environment, precipitatingtechnique during producing and suspension of work were used. Identification based on morphological characterization includedcolony’s structure and profiles were identified by slide culture technique and primary Keys identification. Meanwhile four type’s media studied for growth rate (mm/day) of 36 isolated mold species after 14 days at 25°C. Results: The most predominant fungal generaarranged in cake samples were Aspergillus sp., Penicillium sp., Mucorand Rhizopus sp.as the same, and Alternaria sp. respectively. The mostfrequent environment fungi were as the order follows: Aspergillus(24.5%), Penicillium (21.30%), Cladosporium (20.65%), Alternaria(12.15%), Trichoderma (9.51%), Epicoccum (7.29%), Mucor (3.64%),Rhizopus (0.81%). No significant difference was observed between thedata obtained the spread plating and pour plating technique. Sporesgermination for each media was also measured and indicated varies greatly between MEA and other. Conclusions: Comparison of colony’s growth rates was adapted with the previous results of counting colonies. Considering the time-rate relationship amongst 36 fungal species, 14 of them fallowed linear equations and 7 others followed nonlinear Gauss-Newton curves.

Cakes ، Fungal contamination ، Frequency of molds ، Growth rates