Occurrence of Aflatoxin M1 in raw and processed milk and assessment of daily intake in Lahore, Multan cities of Pakistan

ABSTRACT

In this survey aflatoxin, M₁ was quantified in raw and processed milk from various areas of two big cities of Punjab province, i.e. Lahore and Multan. The results indicated that approximately 90% of the raw milk samples collected from Lahore city was contaminated with aflatoxin M₁. Similarly, around 92% of the raw milk samples collected from Multan city was contaminated with aflatoxin M₁. All samples of processed milk and tea whiteners were contaminated and 56% of the contaminated processed milk samples and 66% of the contaminated tea whitener samples were violating the maximum limits. The dietary exposure data of AFM₁ among six different groups was calculated, which indicated that the male children population was the most vulnerable group to AFM₁, up to 6.68 ng L⁻¹ per day and the least affected one was the female group above 20 years of age with 1.13 ng L⁻¹ per day.

KEYWORDS:

• Aflatoxin M1
• raw milk
• tea whitener
• UHT milk
• ELISA

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to Dr Hafiz Azhar Ali Khan for his valuable contributions regarding the statistical analysis of the data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.