Occurrence, dietary exposure, and risk assessment of aflatoxins in wheat flour from Iran

ABSTRACT

This study was performed to determine the concentration and assess the risk of aflatoxins (AFs) i.e. aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), B₂ (AFB₂), G₁ (AFG₁), and G₂ (AFG₂) in wheat whole and refined flour samples for Iranian adults. Sixty-five (60.19%) out of 108 analysed samples were positive for AFB₁ and total AFs (AFB₁+ AFB₂+ AFG₁+ AFG₂). The range of AFB₁ and the total AFs in samples were 0.14–7.34 and 0.34–7.61 µg kg⁻¹, respectively. While, their means were 1.70 ± 0.22 and 2.15 ± 0.23, respectively. AFB₁ level in 7 (6.48%) samples exceeded maximum limits allowed according to Iran standard (5 µg kg⁻¹) while all samples had total AFs at an acceptable level (15 µg kg⁻¹). The incidence and concentration of AFs in wheat whole flour samples were higher than that of refined flour one. The estimated daily intake (EDI), the margin of exposure (MOE), hepatocellular cancer risk of AFB₁ through flour samples were 0.004 µg kg⁻¹ bw day⁻¹, 108.74 and 4.12 cases per 100,000 individuals/75 years, respectively. As EDI was more than the suggested value of 0.017 ng kg⁻¹ bw day⁻¹ and hepatocellular cancer risk was higher than the recommended level of 0.1 cases/75 years/100,000 individuals and MOE >10,000, it could be concluded AFs level in flour samples had a health potential risk to human health.

KEYWORDS:

• Exposure assessment
• risk assessment
• aflatoxins
• wheat flour
• Iran

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors greatly thank the Vice-Chancellor of Research and Technology of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services for financial support of this project [Number: 9807024911].