Status of aflatoxin contamination in groundnut from five districts in Perak

H. Abidin, S. Mohd. Rosni and A. Hazniza

Abstract

A total of 210 raw shelled groundnut samples obtained from five districts of Perak were analysed for water activity (aw), contamination by Aspergillus flavus group, aflatoxin B1 and aflatoxin G1. The aw of the samples ranged from 0.72–0.75 and the level of A. flavus group contamination ranged from 1.0 x 102 to 1.1 x 105 cfu/g. A total of 161 of the samples (77%) were contaminated with Aspergillus flavus group. A total of 129 (61%) and 118 (56%) samples were contaminated with aflatoxin B1 and G1 in the range of 0.7–547.5 ppb and 0.3–376.0 ppb respectively. The overall results showed that 92% of the groundnut samples were contaminated with total aflatoxin in the range of 0.3–762.1 ppb. There was no correlation between the levels of water activity (aw) to the levels of contamination of A. flavus group, aflatoxin B1 and G1 in all the samples analysed.

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