ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Microbiological Analysis and Concentration
of Organic Dust in an Herb Processing Plant
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1
Department of Food Engineering and Machines, University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Lublin, Poland
2
Department of Public Health, Pope John Paul II State School of Higher Education in Biała Podlaska,
Biała Podlaska, Poland
3
Department of Production Organization and Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences
Submission date: 2018-05-14
Acceptance date: 2018-07-23
Online publication date: 2019-03-14
Publication date: 2019-05-28
Corresponding author
Paweł Sobczak
University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Department of Food Engineering and Machines, Doświadczalna 44, 20-280 Lublin, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(5):3505-3511
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ABSTRACT
In the dust of organic plant origin the presence of micro organisms, particularly moulds
and endotoxins, is recorded to have harmful effects on the human body and cause many diseases.
The microbiological quality of the processed plants is largely dependent on the fragment of the plant
used as raw material, since the microbial contaminants are the result of different contacts of each
particular part of the plant with the external environment during cultivation and further processing.
Organic dust present in the plant raw material may be varied not only in terms of microbial
contamination, but also regarding the size of particles thereof. In the presented study an attempt was
made to identify fungi found in the organic dust sampled in an herb processing plant located in eastern
Poland. The concentrations of PM10 and PM 1.0 were determined within two production lines, and these
values were then referred to the existing regulations. The mean concentration of PM10 significantly
exceeded the alert level.