Aflatoxin levels in dried figs, nuts and paprika for export from Turkey

Three hundred and thirteen of 2643 dried fig, two of eighty hazelnut, sixteen of twenty-eight pistachio, five of ten peanut and nineteen of twenty-three paprika samples for export from Turkey were contaminated with total aflatoxins in the range of 0.2-162.76, 5.46-6.55, 2.31-63.11, 0.75-26.36 and 1.79-6.55 mu g kg(-1), respectively. Samples were collected from January to August 2007 and tested for aflatoxins (B-1, B-2, G(1) and G(2)) by immunoaffinity column extraction using RP-HPLC. Fifty-six of the 313 dried fig, all of the contaminated hazelnut and pistachio, two of the sixteen peanut and three of the nineteen paprika samples exceeded the regulatory limits of the European Union. The ratio of the different types of aflatoxin present in each sample exhibited great variability. For example, of 313 contaminated fig samples, 159 contained only aflatoxin B-1, eighty-five contained B-1 (49.7%) + G(1) (50.3%), twenty-two contained only G(1), twenty contained B-1 (89.4%) + B-2 (10.6%), thirteen contained B-1 (73.7%) + B-2 (10.8%) + G(1) (15.5%) and fourteen contained all four types, B-1 (26%) + B-2 (2.5%) + G(1) (66.5%) + G(2) (5%).