It is important to enumerate and identify molds that
occur in food commodities for both quality assurance
and control operations in food processing plants Quantitative determination of the number of fungi present on the surface of stored products does not include
non-viable mycelium [62] since the Howard mold count
method requires special training and experience to
detect fungi; also, results are very variable due to milling
and standardization of the food [61]. Chemical determination of chitin, a constituent of fungal cell walls, has an advantage in that it will rePect total mycelium based
on chitin content [62, 63]. Bishop et al. [63] used chitin
to further evaluate the detection of mold in tomato
products, ketchup, paste and puree. Variations were
observed in chitin content among di€erent fungal species, depending upon cultural age, growth conditions and values ranged from 5.7 to 43 mg of glucosamine per
mg dry weight. Bishop et al. [63] also concluded that
insect contamination did not change the glucosamine
level significantly until extremely high levels of contamination.