Determination of aflatoxins in nuts of Tabriz confectionaries by ELISA and HPLC methods

Aflatoxins (AFs) are a group of mycotoxins and secondary metabolites of various species of Aspergillus. There are various forms of aflatoxins including B1, B2, G1, G2, M1 and M2 types. Aflatoxins cause important health problems and have high potential effect on liver cancer. Therefore, numerous investigations have been conducted during last three decades. The aim of this work is to determine the contamination levels of nuts used by the confectionaries in Tabriz.

A total of 142 samples including 35 almond , 26 walnut, 4 seeds of apricot, 6 sunflower seeds kernel, 6 sesame seed, 6 peanuts , 32 pistachio,13 hazelnuts and 14 cashews samples were collected from Tabriz confectionaries. The ELISA method was employed for the screening of total aflatoxins.

In 13 cases (28.1% of pistachios, 5.1% of walnuts and 7.1% of cashews) contamination rate of higher than 15 ppb were observed. The HPLC method was applied for the confirmation of ELISA results. Aflatoxin B1 was the highest detected AFs.

The overall results of the tested samples indicated that the rate of contamination of pistachios is higher than the other tested samples.