Preliminarily survey on aflatoxin B1 occurrence in Serbia
2018
Udovicki, Bozidar (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8780-0021) | Tomic, Nikola | Smigic, Nada (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5245-1239) | Djekic, Ilija (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8132-8299) | Rajkovic, Andreja
As a Group 1 carcinogen, aflatoxin B1 represents a major food safety concern. Produced by widespread moulds of Aspergillus species, aflatoxins B1 contaminate a wide range of primary agricultural commodities. It is rather stable under most food processing conditions and its complete elimination from the contaminated material is fairly difficult, which often leads to contamination of derived products. A first step in reducing the exposure to aflatoxin B1 through food are baseline studies that provide an overall image of its incidence. The aim of this survey was to preliminarily assess aflatoxin B1 occurrence by its determination in commodities susceptible to contamination. Samples were collected from several sites in Serbia at the beginning of the year 2018, from “Health food” stores, green markets and grocery stores, in both commercial and bulk packages. The survey demonstrated that the total prevalence of aflatoxin B1 was 49.4% (n=176), with 18.2% of samples above the established maximum permissible levels. The highest prevalence of 94.1%, 68.5% and 52.8% was observed in walnut, maize and derived products, and in peanuts and derived products, with 52.9%, 16.7% and 33.3% of the samples above maximum permissible levels, respectively. The results presented in this survey indicate potential health risk for consumers, linked to the presence of aflatoxin B1 in Serbia, showing the need for more comprehensive further studies in order to more precisely evaluate its occurrence in food. Furthermore, in order to fully assess potential health risk related to the presence of aflatoxin B1 in food, data consumption for various products and different population groups must be included in the analysis.
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