Occurrence of Aflatoxins in Imported Rice at Supermarkets of Ahvaz City, Khuzestan Province, Iran

Background: Rice is one of the major cereals that are primarily consumed by humans. It may become contaminated with aflatoxins (AFs). Aflatoxin B-1 (AFB(1)) is known as one of the most potent environmental mutagens and carcinogens. Objectives: This study was carried out to determine the concentration of AFs in the rice currently sold at the supermarkets in the city of Ahvaz, Khuzestan Province, Iran. Materials and Methods: The levels of AFs in 90 collected imported rice samples after clean-up by AflaTest columns were measured by using a High-Performance Liquid Chromatographer equipped with a C18 column, fluorescence detector (excitation 360 nm and emission 440 nm) and post-column bromide derivatization method, mobile phase of water-acetonitrile-methanol (600:200:200 v/v) +119 mg potassium bromide +100 mu L con. HNO3 at a flow rate of 1 mL/min. Results: The results showed that the highest concentration of AFB(1) and total AFs in the rice samples were 2.3500 and 2.7040 ng/g, respectively. The different mean concentration of AFB(1) and total AFs in three brands of the rice samples was significantly lower than the maximum tolerable level (MTL) of AFB(1) (5 ng/g) and total AFs (30 ng/g) set by the Institute of Standards and Industrial Research of Iran. Conclusions: In all of the investigated imported rice samples, the level of AFB, and total AFS were found to be lower than the Iranian MIL, and no health risk for consumers were detected at these levels of contamination.