IMPACT OF INDUSTRIAL SORTING ON VARIOUS PISTACHIO CATEGORIES IN LINK WITH AFLATOXIN CONTAMINATION THANKS TO A MONTE CARLO SIMULATION

摘要

Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is the main aflatoxin found in pistachios, and has genotoxic carcinogenic effects with no threshold. It is crucial to predict the impact of sorting on various pistachio categories, which are early split, cracked and mouldy pistachios, and thus on AFB1 contamination level. This work assesses the distribution and incidence of aflatoxin in pistachio nuts after forced air drying, as well as in final packages, thanks to a Monte Carlo simulation. A 10 kg sample size of Iranian pistachios for export to Europe is considered. Differences between good and bad lots are taken into account with lots split into 3 classes for mean contamination levels in export packages. Simulation results are in good accordance with observed contamination levels in Iran. Our assessment shows that sorting enables to divide the incidence of early split and mouldy pistachios by three, for any incidence level prior to sorting.