Antifungal activity was evaluated against five strains isolated from the environment, food, or dairy products. They were chosen since they represent some of the most abundant fungal species causing significant food contamination [4 ]. The fungal strains were: Aspergillus niger (3071-13), Paecilomyces spp. (5332-9a), Mucor racemosus (LMA-722), Penicillium crustosum (27,159) and Rhodotorula mucilaginosa (27,173). The recovery method of the microorganisms from −80 °C, cell concentration count and the agar diffusion assay were described by Abou-Diab et al. [11 (link)]. As indicated by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI 2016, CLSI 2017), antifungal activity was measured as the diameter of the clear zone of growth inhibition and recorded as diameter of inhibition in millimeters. Natamycin (16.7 µg/mL) from Sigma-Aldrich (Oakville, ON, Canada) was used as positive control and sterile distilled water as negative control. All data are expressed as mean ± SD and are the mean of three replicates.
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