Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Food Microbiology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijfoodmicro Prevention methods of foodborne Chagas disease: Disinfection, heat treatment and quality control by RT-PCR Ana Caroline de Oliveira a , Vanete Thomaz Soccol b , Hervé Rogez a, ⁎ a Centre for Valorisation of Amazonian Bioactive Compounds (CVACBA), Universidade Federal do Pará, Av. Perimetral da Ciência km 01, 66.095-780, Belém, Pará, Brazil b Universidade Federal do Paraná, Department of Bioprocess Engineering and Biotechnology, Molecular Biology Laboratory, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Trypanosoma cruzi Foodborne transmission Food safety Açai ABSTRACT The most important mode of transmission causing outbreaks of Chagas disease in the Amazon region is the oral route due to the ingestion of contaminated food. Herein, prevention methods for foodborne diseases caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, namely, sanitization, thermal treatment were investigated and the use of reverse transcrip- tion PCR (RT-PCR) amplification for the mRNA-based detection of viable T. cruzi in açai, was developed. Three T. cruzi strains (T. cruzi I, T. cruzi III and Y) were used in the present study. The Amazonian strains T. cruzi I (425) and T. cruzi III (370) showed higher resistance to sodium hypochlorite treatment and heat treatment than the reference strain Y. The blanching of fruits (70 ± 1 °C for 10 s) and pasteurization of juice (82.5 °C for 1 min) efficiently eliminated T. cruzi in food matrices. Additionally, a method that uses RT-PCR amplification of mRNA was developed for the detection of viable T. cruzi in açai, which could play a role in examining food samples, ensuring consumer health, and reducing this foodborne disease. 1. Introduction Trypanosoma cruzi,a flagellated protozoan, is the causative agent of Chagas disease and is transmitted by triatomine insects. Oral trans- mission is currently the most frequent form of the parasite transmission in Brazil, mainly in the Amazon region (Góes-Costa et al., 2017). Out- breaks have been widely documented in several countries from the Americas, including Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and French Guiana (Noya et al., 2015). The possible mechanism for oral transmission is via the ingestion of food and derived products containing whole infected triatomines or their faeces (Pereira et al., 2012). The transmission of Chagas disease by infectious secretions from reservoir hosts, such as opossums, has rarely been observed (Robertson et al., 2016). Su- garcane, guava, bacaba and açai contaminated have already been shown to be responsible for outbreaks (Cardoso et al., 2006; Nóbrega et al., 2009). In Brazil, açai juice is the most frequent vehicle for infection, par- ticularly in the Amazon region (Barbosa et al., 2012; Góes-Costa et al., 2017). In this region, açai is widely consumed, playing an important socio-economic role and providing high nutritive input to river and urban populations (Rogez, 2000). Açai was initially consumed only in the Amazon region. However, due to its high phenolic compound content, it reached international distribution within a few years (Bichara and Rogez, 2011). Industrialized and exported açai are sup- posed to be pasteurized. Unfortunately, however, the majority of açai sold for consumption by the population of Brazil and other South American countries is still not pasteurized (Oliveira and Schwartz, 2018). Attractant factors that draw triatomines to açai fruits have been described. The fruits exhibit accelerated microbial growth kinetics caused by environmental conditions, such as harvesting, storage, shipping and processing, that generate spontaneous fermentation and decay after only 48 h (Rogez et al., 2012). The decay process produces and releases gaseous compounds. Because the production of metabo- lites (e.g., ethanol, lactic acid, and CO 2 ) and water which associated with an increase in the fruit temperature of 5 °C attracts triatomines that are sensitive to these gradients (Aguiar et al., 2013; Rogez and Aguiar, 2012). Thus, sanitary management throughout the production chain is necessary for food safety (Pereira et al., 2012). T. cruzi detection in food matrices is important for the identification of potentially infectious food and for the implementation of prevention procedures in the food chain. The presence of T. cruzi in food can be detected by traditional methods, such as culture and microscopic ob- servation (Cardoso et al., 2006). However, microscopic observation methods are difficult and minimally effective when only a few micro- organisms exist in a sample, and culture is a labour-intensive, time- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2019.04.009 Received 15 August 2018; Received in revised form 2 April 2019; Accepted 25 April 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: frutas@ufpa.br (H. Rogez). International Journal of Food Microbiology 301 (2019) 34–40 Available online 26 April 2019 0168-1605/ © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T