Evaluation of Four Commercial Kits Based on Immunochromatography for Screening Aflatoxin M1 in Milk

In Japan, a regulatory limit of 0.5 μg/kg was set in 2015 for aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in milk. A method using an immunochromatographic kit has been adopted as the official screening method, and criteria for the kit have been set. In order to confirm whether commercial immunochromatographic kits for detecting AFM1 satisfy these criteria, the performance of four kits was evaluated by performing spike-and-recovery experiments using AFM1-free milk samples and milk samples spiked at seven levels (100-700 ng/kg). With the two qualitative kits, determinations of blank samples were all negative and those of the samples spiked at 500 ng/kg were all positive. With the two quantitative kits, the measured values of the blank samples were all less than 100 ng/kg and the recoveries of the samples spiked at 500 ng/kg were all more than 70%. The detection limits of the two quantitative kits were both less than 100 ng/kg. These results indicate that all four immunochromatographic kits meet the criteria and can be used to screen AFM1 in milk.