The importance of good practices in the management and collection of brazil nuts for collectors in Itaúba, MT

Abstract

Brazil nut is an important natural product of the Amazon, with recognized health benefits, as
well as social and environmental positive impacts. However, the expansion and consolidation
of this productive chain presents an obstacle: aflatoxin contamination. The objective of this
work was to train the collectors in good practices of collection and management and to evaluate
the aflatoxin content in nuts. Collectors were trained through lectures and in the harvest of
2013/2014 samples were analysed and compared to a collector who applied and one who did
not apply the good practices. The results showed absence of aflatoxins in the samples of the
collector that adopted the good practices, in all evaluated months. In the samples obtained
from the collector who did not apply the concepts of good practices, aflatoxins were detected
in November and December of 2013 and January of 2014. The training and application of the
concepts of good practices contribute to the improvement of the brazil nuts quality.