Aflatoxin in Raw Peanut Kernels Marketed in Malaysia
SAHAR ARZANDEH1, JINAP SELAMAT1* AND HANIFAH LIOE1,2
1. Centre of Excellence for Food Safety Research (CEFSR), Faculty of Food Science and Technology,
Universiti Putra Malaysia, UPM 43400, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2. Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Bogor 16002, Indonesia
(Received: June 26, 2009; Accepted: January 16, 2009)
ABSTRACT
The occurrence of aflatoxin in eighty-four samples of raw peanut kernels which are randomly collected from Malaysian supermarkets was examined. Analysis for aflatoxin was performed by solvent extraction and immunoaffinity clean-up followed by the determination using high performance liquid chromatography equipped with post-column photochemical reactor for enhanced detection and fluorescence detector. A detection limit of 0.01-0.09 ng/mL and a quantification limit of 0.04-0.30 ng/mL were obtained. The aflatoxin concentrations ranged from not detected to 97.28 ng/g in all samples investigated. About 78.57% of the samples were contaminated with aflatoxin, of which 10.71% exceeded the maximum tolerable limit of 15 ng/g set by the Codex. Average recoveries of the aflatoxin analysis were acceptable which were in the range of 74.85 ± 8.83% for AFG2 at the concentration of 0.15 ng/mL and 103.91 ± 6.45% for AFB2 at the concentration of 0.15 ng/mL. The average daily intake estimated for total aflatoxins was 10.69 ng/kg body weight. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) in aflatoxin content between brands and locations.
Key words: Aflatoxin, peanut, food safety, HPLC with fluorescence detection, immunoaffinity clean-up