DETERMINATION OF AFLATOXINS IN FOOD GRAINS AND PROCESSED FOODS FROM SELECTED AREAS IN BANGLADESH WITH RISK ASSESSMENT

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the occurrence of aflatoxin residues in rice, wheat, maize, lentil, mungbean, mustard, soybean, peanut and processed food items and to identify the sources of contamination with risk assessment. To perform this experiment, 29 samples were collected from godown, 21 samples were collected from wholesale market, 10 processed food samples were collected from departmental store. So, total 60 samples were collected from different locations of Bangladesh. The study duration was March 2020 to June 2021. Collected grain samples and processed food samples were analyzed using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detector to detect residues of aflatoxin (B 1 , B 2 , G 1 ). In this study, 8 godown samples (3 peanut samples, 2 maize samples, 3 lentil samples) and 1 wholesale market sample (rice) were detected with aflatoxin, whereas no processed food sample was detected positive for aflatoxin. The highest concentration of aflatoxin found in peanut (local) was 156.12 µg/kg and lowest concentration found in peanut (imported) was 0.5181 µg/kg. Results showed that among 9 samples, 4 samples (1 peanut sample, 2 maize samples and 1 lentil sample) exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of aflatoxin B 1 (2 µg/kg). Among 4 samples, 3 samples (1 peanut sample, 2 maize samples) exceeded the maximum residue limit (MRL) of total aflatoxin B 1 , G 1 & G 2 (4 µg/kg) as per Commission Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006 for food. Human health risk assessment from aflatoxins exposure through rice, maize, lentil and peanut consumption from the godown and wholesale markets by adults showed no significant adverse health risk to humans.