Reduction of aflatoxin M1 in dairy products using probiotics: A comprehensive review

The contamination of milk and its products with aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) represents a significant global health concern. A variety of techniques, including physical, chemical, and biological methods, have been employed to detoxify and reduce AFM1 concentration. This review aims to assess the effectiveness of using probiotics in removing or reducing AFM1 in milk and dairy products, emphasizing the factors that affect this approach. The utilization of probiotics as a detoxification method is known as an appropriate and effective strategy for reducing toxins in food or decreasing their bio accessibility in the human body. It is also regarded as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly detoxification strategy. This review showed that probiotics could efficiently reduce the AFM1 level in milk and dairy products, depending on the treatment conditions used, including type, concentration, and viability of probiotics, initial toxin level, presence of prebiotics in addition to incubation time, and temperature. In addition to their high efficacy in AFM1 removal, they have no adverse effects on the nutritional value or organoleptic properties of the product. To this end, probiotics could be a promising solution for removing AFM1 from dairy products.