Correlation of meteorological and other characteristic factors with aflatoxin B1 pollution in peanut oil

ObjectiveTo reveal the effects of specific factors on aflatoxin B1 （AFB1） contamination in peanut oil and the status of AFB1 contamination in peanut oil in Guangdong Province from 2017 to 2018 was taken as an example.MethodsA total of 637 peanut oil samples were collected from 21 cities in Guangdong Province from 2017 to 2018， and their labels were recorded. The content of AFB1 in peanut oil was detected according to “GB 5009.22—2016 Determination of aflatoxin group B and group G in foods”. The temperature data of manufacturing place was obtained from ECMWF Reanalysis v5 database （ERA5） and the average temperature of the month before production was calculated， and the correlation between temperature and AFB1 content was then analyzed.ResultsThe total detection rate of AFB1 in peanut oil samples was 65.3% with 24.6% over-standard rate. There was no over-standard sample in the standardized packages， while the bulk samples had a higher over-standard level rate and the median content of AFB1 was significantly higher than that in the standardized package samples. Among several meteorological factors， average temperature of the month before peanut oil production had a strong relevance to the over-standard rate and content of AFB1 in the samples. The median content of AFB1 in bulk peanut oil samples with average temperature of pre-production above 25 ℃ was about 3.5 times that of the samples with average temperature below 22 ℃. However， other meteorological factors showed no correlation with AFB1 content in peanut oil.ConclusionAFB1 in bulk peanut oil samples in Guangdong Province from 2017 to 2018 has a high over-standard rate， and the average temperature of pre-production is a key factor affecting the content of AFB1. Therefore， the government should raise the awareness of the production environment and production process to ensure the quality of bulk peanut oil and reduce the risk of AFB1 exposure and other risks.