Background: Aflatoxins are one of the most potent toxic substances that occur naturally. Nowadays extensive attention has been taken to their existence in food and environment, as there is the possibility of harm to humans following chronic exposure to extremely low levels via food chain. Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a hepatic carcinogenic metabolite found in the milk of lactating animals fed with contaminated feed contaminated by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1).
Objectives: This study aimed to determine the levels of AFM1 in produced pasteurized milk in the Ahvaz of city.
Materials and methods: For this purpose, 100 samples of pasteurized milk from the Jamus Factory were analyzed the to determine AFM1 content by using an immunoaffinity column for clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a C18 column, a fluorescence detector (excitation 365 nm, emission 435 nm) and a mobile phase of acetonitrile-water (25:75, v/v) at a flow rate of 1 mL/min.
Results: AFM1 was detected in all 100 samples of pasteurized milk at concentrations ranging from 0.45 to 9.760 ng/L.
Conclusions: The mean concentration of AFM1 in the the pasteurized milk samples was 2.7 ng/L, which was below the 50 ng/L, accepted as level of for milk in Iran.
Keywords: Aflatoxin M1; Aflatoxins; Chromatography, High-Performance; Liquid Chromatography; Milk.