Aflatoxins in Brazilian Peanut Confection

The study's objectives were to evaluate a method for the determination of aflatoxins (AFs) in the Brazilian peanut confection "Paçoca" and to apply the method in investigating AF concentrations in Paçoca marketed in São Paulo State throughout 2013. Results of another survey conducted between 1994 and 2002 with another method were also reported. The current method consists of immunoaffinity column cleanup, LC with postcolumn derivatization for AF fluorescence enhancement, and fluorescence determination for the toxins. The mean recovery and mean RSD_r values were 88.6 and 7.9%, respectively. The LODs for aflatoxin B₁, aflatoxin B₂, aflatoxin G₁, and aflatoxin G₂ were 0.04, 0.01, 0.02, and 0.01 ng/g; and the LOQs were 0.15, 0.04, 0.07, and 0.04 ng/g, respectively. Results of the two survey studies indicate that the contamination of AFs in Paçoca remains a public health problem. In the 2013 survey, 71 of 100 samples (71%) had AFs contamination ranging from 0.3 to 41.8 ng/g, with 12 samples (12%) containing >20 ng/g of the toxins, whereas in the 1994-2002 survey, 73 of 150 samples (51%) had AFs contamination ranging from 9 to 1439 ng/g with 65 samples (45%) containing levels >20 ng/g.