| Summary: | The aim of the present study was to develop meat-based media with compositions similar to those of dry-fermented meat products and to evaluate their use in studying the growth of <i>Aspergillus parasiticus</i> and the kinetics of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) production. In our previous experiments, we found that the strain <i>A. parasiticus</i> ŽMJ7 produced a high amount of AFB1. Cooked meat agar (CMA2) was used as a novel complex meat-based medium with four variations: CMA2G (CMA2 supplemented with 1% glucose), CMA2YE (CMA2 supplemented with 0.2% yeast extract), and CMA2GYE (CMA2 supplemented with 1% glucose and 0.2% yeast extract). Media were inoculated with an <i>A. parasiticus</i> spore suspension (10<sup>5</sup> spores/mL) and incubated at 25 °C for up to 15 days. The <i>A. parasiticus</i> lag phase lasted less than 1 day, irrespective of the growth medium, with the exception of control medium CMA1 (cooked meat agar) as an already known meat-based medium. The highest mean colony growth rate was observed on CMA2 and CMA2G. Reversed-phase UPLC–MS/MS analysis was performed to determine the AFB1 concentration in combination with solid phase extraction (SPE). The highest AFB1 concentration in meat-based media was detected in CMA2GYE after 15 days of incubation (13,502 ± 2367 ng/mL media). The results showed that for studying AFB1 production in dry-fermented meat products, novel suitable media such as CMA2-based media are required. This finding could represent a potential concern with regard to the production of dry-fermented meat products.
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