Incidence and level of aflatoxin contamination in chilli commercialised in Turkey.

摘要

During the years 2011-2012, a total of 182 chilli samples were collected from two provinces of Turkey and checked for aflatoxins (AFs). The samples were analysed using immunoaffinity column (IAC) clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorescence detector (HPLC-FLD) after post-column derivatisation. Quantification limits were 0.111, 0.110, 0.115 and 0.140 mug kg-1 for aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), aflatoxin B₂ (AFB₂), aflatoxin G₁ (AFG₁) and aflatoxin G₂ (AFG₂), respectively. Aflatoxins were found in 150 out of 182 analysed samples: one hundred and fifty samples with AFB₁, eighty-four samples with AFB₂ and thirty-two samples with AFG₁. No AFG₂ were detected in chilli samples above the quantification limit of 0.14 mug kg-1. The ranges for positive samples were 0.24-165 mug AFB₁ kg-1, 0.15-11.3 mug AFB₂ kg-1 and 0.15-3.88 mug AFG₁ kg-1. Fifty and thirty-five samples of chilli exceeded the legal limits of 5 and 10 mug kg-1 established by European Commission for AFB₁ and total AFs (the sum of AFB₁, AFB₂, AFG₁ and AFG₂), respectively