Detection of aflatoxins in pistachio nut and ground red pepper sold in Gaziantep region

In this research aflatoxin contamination of packaged and/or unpackaged ground red pepper and pistachio nuts sold in Gaziantep during 12 months period from June 2008 to May 2009 have been studied. Totally 240 ground red pepper and 240 pistachio nut samples were collected. In these samples, total aflatoxin (AFT) and aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), pH and water activity (aw) analysis were done. Mold and yeast counts were also performed. 30.0 % (51/170) and 52.9 % (74/170) unpackaged ground red pepper samples were exceeding AFT and AFB1 legal limits (10 and 5 µg/kg) , respectively, while 1.4 % (1/70) and 5.7 % (4/70) packaged ground red pepper samples were exceeding AFT and AFB1 legal limits respectively. The highest contaminations of aflatoxins AFT and AFB1 in ground red pepper samples were seen in June. It was 97.4 ppb in AFT and 89.99 ppb in AFB1. None of the 105 (55.6 %) unpackaged and 37 (72.5 %) packaged pistachio nut samples were contaminated with aflatoxins. AFT and AFB1 were detected in 43.4 % (82/189) and 41.8 % (79/189) unpackaged pistachio nut samples, respectively, with the contamination levels ranging from 0.007 to 7.72 ppb and from 0.007 to 4.08 ppb, respectively, and only one (0.5 %) of 189 unpackaged pistachio nut sample was contained AFT and AFB1 over legal limit with contamination level 148.15 and 133.49 ppb respectively.Aflatoxin contamination can be prevented by improving the processing methods during harvesting, drying, packaging, transportation and storage.