The investigation of hazelnut varieties and presence of aflatoxin

Hazelnut is one of the hard-grown fruits grown widely in the world. Turkey, Italy, USA, Spain, Georgia, is cultivated in many countries, particularly Turkey. Our country is the leading hazelnut producer in the world and covers approximately %70 of the world production. The Black Sea Region has favorable ecological conditions for hazelnut production. There are 18 standard hazelnut varieties developed as a result of producer selections. Distinctive feature of varieties; its physical appearance, its fat and protein ratios, internal rate and geographical region where it is produced. Mold contamination is very common in hazelnuts and aflatoxins made up of these molds put human health at risk. A. flavus, A. paraticus, A. ochraceus, A. tamarii, A. terreus, A. wentii can produce aflatoxin as a result of development in hazelnut. Mold development in hazelnut begins in the garden and continues during harvesting processes. Insufficient or incorrect drying processes continue increasingly in storage an transportation. Many physicochemical and biological methods are used in the determination of aflatoxins. Chromatographic techniques are among the separation methods. Aflatoxin determination is made with the help of fluorescence detector with HPLC method. All aflatoxins are separated by HPLC and quantification is made. In this study, aflatoxin amounts of 50 different hazelnut samples were determined and evaluated according to internationally accepted limit values.