Aflatoxin M₁ in raw milk from different regions of São Paulo state – Brazil

Abstract

A total of 635 raw milk samples from 45 dairy farms, from three regions of São Paulo state – Brazil, were evaluated during 15 months for aflatoxin M₁ (AFM₁). AFM₁ was determined by high performance liquid chromatograph with fluorescence detection. AFM₁ was detected (>0.003 µg kg⁻¹) in 72.9%, 56.3% and 27.5% of the samples from Bauru, Araçatuba and Vale do Paraíba regions, respectively. The mean AFM₁ contamination considering all the samples was 0.021 µg kg⁻¹. Furthermore, the concentration of AFM₁ was quite different among Bauru (0.038 µg kg⁻¹), Araçatuba (0.017 µg kg⁻¹) and Vale do Paraíba (<0.01 µg kg⁻¹) regions. Only three samples (0.5%) had higher contamination than the tolerated limit in Brazil (0.50 µg kg⁻¹) and 64 samples (10.1%) had a higher contamination than the maximum limit as set by the European Union (0.050 µg kg⁻¹). The estimated AFM₁ daily intake was 0.358 and 0.120 ng kg⁻¹ body weight per day for children and adults, respectively.

Keywords:

• aflatoxin M1
• HPLC
• milk
• somatic cell count
• human exposure
• Brazil

Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education – Ministry of Education of Brasil-CAPES for the master’s scholarship.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP [grant# 2008/57182-5, grant #2009/06229-4 and grant # 2012/17683-0].