Occurrence and Risk Assessment of Aflatoxin B₁ in Spices Marketed in Greece

Abstract

The issue of food and feed contamination by fungi and aflatoxins constitutes a signficant issue for human and animal health, agriculture, and the economy. Aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) is considered to be the most potent liver carcinogen for humans. In this study, twenty-nine samples of spices marketed in Athens (Greece) were surveyed for microbiota and aflatoxin B₁ contamination. Four fungi genera were isolated, of which Aspergillus, Rhizopus, and Fusarium spp. were the most dominant. The presence of AFB₁ was detected in 68.9% (n = 20) of the samples (mean of 9.89 ng AFB₁ g⁻¹) using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The most contaminated samples that exceeded the legislation limits were turmeric, mahalepi, garam masala, tandoori masala, with 8.73, 17.08, 28.28, and 132.70 ng AFB₁ g⁻¹ respectively. Moreover, 26 samples were found to be positive for bacteria contamination. In addition, a method for the determination of aflatoxin B₁ in spices was developed and validated. The recovery of the method was found to be 100.4% while the detection and the quantification limits were 0.1 ng g⁻¹ and 0.45 ng g⁻¹. Finally, a risk analysis for the consumption of the contaminated spices was assessed taking into account the maximum and the minimum measured concentrations of AFB₁.

Keywords:

• Aflatoxin B₁
• bacteria
• fungi
• high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
• risk assessment
• spices

Acknowledgments

This work is financially supported by the Special Research Account of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.